No one talks about M.I.A. being good!

You fuckers just talk about globalization.

I don't care so much about globalization. I'm not gonna listen to shit because it's from the other side of the world, mixed with my shit. I'm gonna listen to shit because it's got that funk. And, perhaps, because it's GOOD?! Somebody needs to be talking about how M.I.A. is just that good shit. Have you heard her self-titled track? It's tasty.

Come on writers. Don't put it on your year end lists and say "it's globalization!" That's not a reason it's the record of the year in my book. Maybe I've got a different book.

Making songs from titles

I sometimes hear a title of a song I don't know by an artist I know pretty well, and want to create what I think that song is. Example: I bet I can make a song called "Straight to the Top" in the style of Tom Waits pretty easily. I want to then hear the real song and see how mine compares.

This is easier for some artists than others. Tom Waits and the Rolling Stones are easier to emulate (assuming you know the period of the song they really made) than, say, making a song called "My Little Red Book" in the style of Love. Artists more rooted to a style would be easier to predict. Artists with unambiguous song titles (your attention please, Arthur Lee) would be easier to predict.

Sometimes a song title alone will do it for me. The title alone can be the spawning idea for a whole song. It seems that this idea works for others too. MF Doom & MF Grimm's "I Hear Voices" has 2 different interpretations of the title phrase, and verses from each based on their conception of the title. I want to do more work like that.

Influence connection game.

Marvin Gaye's "Hitchhike" -> the Velvet Underground's "There She Goes Again" -> the arpeggiating guitar work on R.E.M.'s Murmur album? Glorious.