I gotta say, Linkin Park is one my favorite bands. Their music is constantly improving and pushing innovative boundaries. The first album, Hybrid Theory, went platinum several times over. Instead of cutting another studio record right away, they released Reanimation, a remix album, a reimagining of the songs on HT. Normally, I'm not big on remix albums (I sort of overloaded on them with Nine Inch Nails), but this one is fantastic. They bring in rappers or vocalists from other bands to sing lyrics, and almost every song is remixed by someone new (though looking at the liner notes shows how closely the band was involved in this process). My favorite song is the remix of "One Step Closer", which is a kickass tune anyway, but the Humble Brothers and Jonathan Davis (from KoRn) turn it into something that makes me want to leave on the infinite repeat. The next studio album was Meteora, which came out last year, and is every bit as grand as the title suggests. It illustrates almost immediately how much the band has grown musically in such a short time. I listen to that one nearly every day at work because it's so good.

So I was a little disappointed with Live in Texas, which was recently released. It's a DVD and CD in one package, which is nice, but they don't really do anything new. They sound almost exactly the same as they do in the studio, except not quite as good. Plus the treble on Chester Bennington's mike is way too high, and I'm surprised they didn't catch it. It's a good enough concert, but I prefer their previous DVD, Frat Party at the Pancake Festival (which contains all their music videos up to that point, along with two exclusive audio tracks, and a LOT of behind-the-scenes footage), along with the previous studio albums. The live album just really doesn't add much to their creative oeuvre, which is a shame. In each previous release, they were constantly pushing themselves to create the best songs and the best albums that they could possibly do; their producer would work with them on lyrics, and make them write more than ten or fifteen drafts of any one song. They tirelessly practiced and tried to think of new ways to express their art. These guys are probably the smartest rock band, well, ever; all six band members have graduate degrees (Joseph Hahn and Mike Shinoda originally met in art school). And the new live album/DVD unfortunately feels like a lazy effort.

***

Had my final fiction workshop last night, but Dr. K is having a potluck dinner at his place on Saturday night for the class, which should be cool. I was surprised at what a good group it was this semester; it wasn't quite at the level of Clarion critique, but it was surprisingly close. I got a lot of good feedback on my stories in that class, and I'll probably be sending out "Don't Blink" over the semester break. I also want to write a short-short for the zeppelin antho based on the somewhat true history of Two Cranes Press.

(By the way, if you ordered a copy of Four Seasons, feel free to let me know what you thought of it. This is Janet and my first attempt at publication, and I'd like to know what works and what doesn't. Of course, hyperbolic praise is always welcome.)

I probably won't be updating again until after this weekend; got one paper to write, one to revise, and a story to revise. I'll be secluded in the apartment writing and writing and writing, and come up for air Monday morning. Wish me luck.

***

The temps get down into the low twenties tonight. Come on power, stay on tonight.

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Now Reading:
The Book/The Writer by Zoran Zivkovic

Stories Out to Publishers:
4

Books Read This Year:
56

Zines/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
35