I generally use file sharing for an honest, or at least well-meaning, purpose. I download tracks by artists I'd like to investigate further so I can buy their CDs, you know, the next time I have disposable income. I'm mostly digging into the vaults, because I'm psychologically elderly and think most new music is crap. It's all about Big Bill Broonzy, kids.

Okay, and Prince. When Prince first came out I thought boys had cooties, but he grew on me when I was living in Connecticut and learning to use "party" as a verb. I'm starting my current Prince investigation by re-listening to some singles. Which made me wonder what Prince thinks about the phrase "party like it's 1999" becoming first a catchphrase (my college house used it in 1997), then a cliche (as if we were the only college kids who thought of it), and now a metaphor for the dot-com 90s. I mean, c'mon. The song came out in 1983. It's not about nostalgia for overvalued stocks and company-sponsored happy hours. It's about the apocalypse, is it not? I could be wrong -- damn if I knew the elevator in "Let's Go Crazy" was supposed to be Satan until I saw Prince going on about it on VH1.

Sorry, folks, if you don't want to hear Tales of the Rent-Poor every day, you're gonna hear about pop culture.

In other, better news, I restarted a stalled writing project yesterday. A real one, a big one, one I used to think of in terms of a book on paper (any agents out there?) It still may never get to dead-tree form, but look for part of it here in 4-6 weeks.