killin' it

a. Dave Queen about Fleetwood Mac. There is no better music writer in the world right now.

b. Nate Patrin about the Beastie Boys. This review might be unfair but I have no problem with that, nor inclination to do my own research.

c. OMG WTF, a triple for Seattle Weekly: Matos' book about Prince's Sign 'O' the Times should become the new primer for how to write about music, and oneself, and the world. Despite one or two minor quibbles with it (hard to know whether MM is talking about himself as a kid or as an adult sometimes, present tense is a sexy m.f.), I'm totally proud to know him and to occasionally get yelled at on the phone by him, and to get reviews ruthlessly brutally copy-edited by him.

d. Mark Cuban's weblog. Okay, so dude isn't gonna trade Dirk after all. Don't say he will or he'll call you a girl.

e. The new Heart album. It's like Diane Warren never happened.

f. Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, who just hit .500 for the entire month of June. I predicted before the season started that the Tigers would place third and that Pudge would get selected AL MVP. Watch Vlad hit a slump, I'll be proven right. But Jeter over Carlos Guillen for All-Star SS is a damned travesty, y'all. Plus Guillen is cuter, Jeter looks like Lance Bass.

g. Although I no longer link to her because she doesn't know who the eff I am and I'm trying to only link to those who link to this decidedly third-tier weblog, the stuff written up by Challenger's bass player is so very good that I read it all the time anyway. She's the cool best friend that I cannot have...only one person can have that.