Looks like Jeremy Renner isn't so much an arm man, himself: [link]

but at least my hair is short again

Did you get the fade?

and the Gorallaz' Plastic Beach.)

An underrated album!

Here, have a lovely ukelele cover of "Melancholy Hill."

My SIL just reported the following conversation between my eldest nephew and a friend:

Nephew: I can't wait for my facial hair to come in.

Friend: We shouldn't have to wait much longer.

Nephew: well I already have some it is just blonde.

He's 10. My nephew is a pre-tween. How can that wee lump born just the other day be talking about facial hair?

Incidentally, the neuroscientist has suggested getting into new kinds of music as a good way to help keep one's mental faculties from deteriorating as we get older.

Excellent.

In the last decade I've discovered all sorts of cool music from iTunes, eMusic, music blogs, friends etc.

Did you know music can be addictive? In that it triggers some of the same pleasure centers as some drugs do (I can't remember the specifics). For me personally, I think new (to me) music is addictive. I usually have some album or band I'm obsessing about that brings me a lot of pleasure to listen to, but eventually that pleasure will start to wear off and I need to find more new music for my fix. Did I mention I have about 22,000 songs in iTunes?

eta: some of my current obsessions:

• Tame Impala
• Django Django
• Bat for Lashes
• Foxygen

I discovered opera in my 30s, and started buying Maria Callas CDs. I made myself stop when I started tracking down variant versions of Tosca, because my budget can't sustain that kind of obsession--though I much prefer the version of Mario's interrogation from the live performance at La Scala over the cast recording from the Met.

I do tend to get obsessed with the odd new tune every now and again, but I add music at a rate of a song every two to six months. I'm awful. And then it will be on repeat for a while, and then I'll go back to silence or to the 80s, from whence I haven't really left.

I'm trying to do Beasts of the Southern Wild fanart, and it's hard to draw when you're tearing up, you know? Hushpuppy's tagline for the movie gets me right in the tummy. I do think the way I've started drawing recently works kind of well with this character, but doing this movie justice, never mind her performance, is a tall tall order indeed.

Oh, wait--soundtracks or scores--mostly scores--that can give me a whole album bump in my collection at once. But mostly I trip onto that pop song everyone's been playing for months and then falling in love just as it stops getting played. Or I can have a button installed, like with Sail or I Bruise Easily where it is what I use to calm myself down for a good year. Two or three times through, and my brain is clear and I can move forwards again.

One of the things I really like to do (and this is probably since college) is listen to "World" music - notably from Latin America and Africa. I like the different rhythms of that music periodically combined with some current pop and my old standards (80s and 90s music). I used to listen to lot more new music 10 years ago than I do now, maybe I will change that!

I also used to listen to a lot more music 10 years ago.

I haul my 17" laptop to work every day so I can have access to my full music collection. Perhaps I am a bit... anal? obsessive?

My latest musical repeat is ZZ Ward. Fits right in with the Adele run that came from several of her songs being the first few songs used by the aqua-fitness class that started as I finished my swim. Before that, Winehouse, Lana Del Rey, Lilly Allen, Rilo Kiley and KT Tunstell. I think I have a type for the past five years. But there is also Gaga, Gnarles Barkly, Katy Perry, Shakira, Rhianna and MIA. So, whatever.

Neighbor is getting her annual city roto-rootering. So far I've not had to suffer this fate, I think it is the tree in front of her house, but how my sewage pipes are not similarly compromised, I don't even know. She installed a streetside cleanout drain to the tune of 5K because if you do that, it is a free city service, not a $600 plumber call. My cleanout is inside. I pray for no roots or collapsed pipes.

And for the record, Kiss Ma Grits cheese grits reheated 14 hours later? Still as good.