While playing aimlessly on the guitar I accidentally figured out the chords to "My Finest Hour" by The Sundays, off their first and best album. It's not a difficult song but I like the way the guitarist keeps the E and B strings open, creating a mildly hypnagogic drone and giving rise to some pleasing dissonances. Most of my favorite artists are British--the Beatles, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, the Sex Pistols, the Smiths, the Sundays, PJ Harvey, Stereolab (leaving aside the two French chicks)...I wonder why. Bob Dylan and Steely Dan are about the only American artists I place in the pantheon, and the Canadian Joni Mitchell gets in on the strength of Blue and Court and Spark. It's almost closing time here at the library and I'm tired; a martini and Stereolab's Dots and Loops sounds like a good way to unwind.