Belle & Sebastian - good stuff

Wednesday early morning, skies mostly clear and a bright curvaceous slice of moon hanging over the still-dark horizon. I could easily have dropped the top this morning, but something about the dark made me want the top up. This probably has something to do with the fact that a top-down morning drive now requires a little more thought about clothing, usually an extra layer.

Traffic seemed a bit light this morning, though many of the cars I did share the roads with were covered in heavy morning dew.  Most of those hadn't bothered to remove that heavy dew cover from their windows, so I know their visibility was highly compromised.  I left extra distance and watched their movements even more carefully than normal.  Folks, it takes about 2 minutes with a $5 squeegee to clear off all the windows on your car before you head out into traffic.  It sure beats the inevitable close calls or worse.  Can life really be that rushed?

Driving through the S-curve on the service road between main and north campus this morning I had a bicyclist coming from the opposite direction suddenly cut diagonally across my path as I came around the last corner.  Fortunately for for both of us I take that course very slowly.  He was in dark clothing and stocking cap, no helmet, no reflective anything, and no lights (in the dark), and riding with his hands in his pockets rather than on the handlebars.  He didn't alter anything when he zipped in front of me, not even bothering to take the handlebars in hand.  Maybe he doesn't know how many folks (and some of the service carts!) run the service road at nearly street speeds?

Music this morning was intentionally homogeneous.  Belle & Sebastian released a new album (Write About Love) this week, and it's been in my pre-order queue since it was first announced.  I love their bright blend of alternative mixed with rich sixties/seventies stylings, their clever lyrics, and stick-in-my-head melodies.  So I set the iPod dial (yes, this is one of the old style models with a round controller on the front) to play this album rather than shuffle the whole deck.  Based on the tracks sampled on the way in this morning (listed below), it's another winner. Looking forward to the remaining tracks! The album title link above goes to their Web site and has a great 30-minute tongue-in-cheek (in places) documentary interview, concert, Q/A, state of the music industry discussion – worth watching. 

• I Want the World to Stop
• I Can See Your Future
• Come On Sister
• Sunday's Pretty Icons
• Read the Blessed Pages
• Blue Eyes of a Millionaire