The trip was fine. I seem to have gotten acclimated to west Texas over the past six months because Alabama and Tennessee struck me as downright tropical in comparison. The graduation ceremony was long and dull, of course, so I spent most of it reading a book on Dewey's moral philosophy for Choice and scoping out some of the southern belles as they crossed the stage. In Murphreesboro and Chattanooga I had good luck at the used CD shops, picking up:

Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland;

Van Morrison, Best of vol. 2 and Too Long in Exile (a lot of filler on these but worth the price for the occasional glints of beauty--and now I know where the sample in Beck's "Jackass" comes from);

Björk, Vespertine (even though Christgau liked this, I bought it on the strength of hearing "Secret Place" and "Pagan Poetry" in a record shop in Bloomington last year);

Nova Bossa: Red Hot on Verve (a great collection of 60's and 70's Bossa Nova, mostly by artists associated with the famous Getz/Gilberto album);

Patti Smith, Horses;

Best of Bowie;

Led Zeppelin I;

Kraftwerk, Autobahn;

Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin;

and General Public, ...All the Rage.

Robert Christgau Word of the Day

mystagogy n. The doctrines, principles, or practice of a mystagogue; interpretation of mysteries. (dictionary.reference.com)

Soundgarden Superunknown [A&M, 1994]

Having mocked this group's conceptual pretensions for years, I'd best point out that Chris Cornell still isn't Robert Plant, Kim Thayill still isn't Jimmy Page, and so forth, before cheerfully acknowledging that 1) they're all closer than they used to be and 2) it no longer matters. This is easily the best--the most galvanizing, kinetic, sensational, catchy--Zep rip in history. And though there may be a philosophical or interpersonal dimension, to me the trick sounds like it was done with songwriting, arrangement, and production. At 70 minutes, it's what used to be called a double album, not quite as long as Physical Graffiti but a lot more consistent. And though their apocalyptic pessimism is almost as content-free as Zep's apocalyptic mystagogy, Zep never reached out like Cornell in "My Wave": "Cry, if you want to cry/If it helps you see/If it clears your eyes/Hate, if you want to hate/If it keeps you safe/If it makes you brave." A- (www.robertchristgau.com)