HMV + Roadside Stall + Django’s

Lots of things are bobbing around in the stew.

Yo La Tengo tickets have been bought, and groupie glee is building within me. Next major gig quest: Depeche Mode in October.

On the way back from the Stargreen outlet on Argyll Street, HMV just had too many racks of CDs with Various Percentages Off! to resist, so I zipped in and got Nick’s birthday present (Bent: Programmed To Love – I’d originally planned on Kruder & Dorfmeister’s The K & D Sessions but the idiot went and bought that for himself despite my strict instructions to check with me before buying any CDs), as well as This Films Crap Lets Slash The Seats (David Holmes, £5.99).

On the walk home, I passed a roadside CD stall on Goodge Street, and due to my physical inability to walk past potential music bargains, I had to stop there as well, and was astounded – A Grand Love Story (Kid Loco), Code 4109 (DJ Krush), Field Studies (Quasi), Fear Of Fours (Lamb) and Breath From Another (Esthero), all at £5 or less. I didn’t have enough (or any) cash with me at the time, but I’m going back today, and there will be spending.

Last stop on the way back was the computer room, where I checked my email, and found that Django had been kind. Doolittle (Pixies, $7.99) and The Fidelity Wars (Hefner, $8.99) are on their way to me from that wondrous land of affordable music that is the US. Although this sounds like a day of little restraint, I’d like to say that So…How’s Your Girl? (Handsome Boy Modeling School) was available for $9.99 but I controlled myself.

In other news, friend, future colleague and travel freak Yan Bin has come up with a detailed itinerary for what looks like a smashingly exhausting 18-day odyssey through Greece and Turkey, to be attempted in September. I just hope I don’t run into residential difficulties for the next academic year, so I can enjoy this trip as much as it deserves to be enjoyed without having to deal with the looming spectre of homelessness.