It is really hard to think about anything but the election this week. It is really all I have thought about for many months now. I have become obsessed with watching CNN every night. I sometimes feel like I know John King and Anderson Cooper better than I actually do. I have spent a lot of time with them. I am just glad it is all over now. The people of the United States actually impressed me this year and elected a president that I actually respect. I still remember how I felt in 1992 when I was able to help elect Bill Clinton in my first election. I have not felt this good about an election since then. Unfortunately we still
have to wait a couple of months for Barack Obama to take over. I can't really imagine the last 8 years without music to help me get through it. Just try to imagine your life without the escape that music offers you. I would not have made it. Think of all the great music that came out during the Reagan and first George Bush administrations. The music that came out between 1980 and 1992 was some of the best music ever created. It still 
remains my favorite period for music. I am really happy about Obama but this might mean we are facing a bad period for music. Just think about all the bad music that came out during Bill Clinton's eight years in office. These were the years of Blind Melon and Crash Test Dummies, Spice Girls and Aqua. I will need to do some more research, but I am almost positive that having a Republican as president helps to create some fantastic music, while having a democrat as president makes musicians lazy and helps to create some horrible singles and albums.
worried about this album. It was their darkest album yet and would remain their darkest of all time, yet everyone embraced the album and fell in love with it. It somehow managed to speak to an entire generation. The Cure was not just for the goths and weirdos anymore. Everyone liked them. I could not get enough of this band. Disintegration remains most Cure fans' favorite album. It came out at an important developmental part of my life and probably was the most important album in my life. People often overstate the importance of certain albums, but it came out a couple days after my birthday during my last couple months of junior high. It 
became my album of the summer of 1989, the year before I started High School. I probably listened to this album at least once a day. Wish came out 3 years later, a couple weeks before my 18th birthday and close to the end of my life in High School. While Disintegration would remain my favorite, I also fell in love with Wish. The album was everywhere. The singles that most Cure fans didn't really like were all over the radio. It was really all about the B-sides and the non single tracks on this album. These were the songs I was obsessed with. I could live without ever hearing "Friday I'm In
Love" or "High" again, but still can't get enough of "Apart," "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea," and "To With Impossible Things." This album became the album of my summer of 1992. I was not alone. It was another important album for a very important part of my life. The Cure was there for me again to help me transition both emotionally and physically. For most of us, Wish would be the last great Cure album. We are hopelessly devoted fans for life but nothing can compare to those albums. 
Maybe some of you have heard of this game called Guitar Hero. I am sure some of you are fans of Rock Band and want nothing to do with Guitar Hero. I am probably one of the very few people who has never played Guitar Hero or Rock Band. I have heard people talk about it endlessly and been at parties where people have been playing it, but I have resisted for some 
reason. I guess it is sort of like Karaoke. I love the idea of it and actually love watching people "perform" at Karaoke bars but am just too shy to actually sing out loud in front of large crowds of strangers. A couple of years ago one of my friends dragged me to one of those private Karaoke booths that they have in Japantown in San Francisco. I never even really knew these existed. I could finally do karaoke. I really don't mind embarrassing myself in front of 
my friends. I just don't like strangers I guess. So really I should love Guitar Hero. There will be no strangers watching me embarrass myself. I just never had this game in my own house before. 
myself some sort of new game system. I could not let this moment in history pass me by. Amoeba Hollywood always carried used games, but we never really got into the whole new games market until now. How could we not carry a game that we are a star of!? We are carrying the Guitar Hero games in all versions at all 3 stores. But we also have a selection of other games at the Hollywood store. I am so excited that game nerds can now hang out with music and movie nerds. I am sure we will all get along. We don't sell the actual game systems, but I imagine you can figure out where to find those. I could have gotten a Play Station or XBOX, but being a long time fan of Nintendo, Wii was the obvious choice for me. Of course, these are the hardest systems to find, but I managed to track one down last week, and I will be bringing home my new copy of Guitar Hero very soon. The new version of the game, Guitar Hero World Tour, actually came out yesterday, October 26th. The Game industry seems to have their own set of rules. Guitar Hero actually came out on a Sunday! They can't even wait until the Tuesday street date like the movies and music.
- "Float On"
ure too much to ask for? 
somewhat of a mystery to me. I have never really done any research on them and have never read a review of them or their albums. I know they live in New York, but that is pretty much where my knowledge of them begins and ends. I have no idea what they look like and I have no idea how others have described them. It makes them more interesting to me. The music just basically exists in my head and I have made my own little personal set of stories about them. I have not yet had the opportunity to see them live -- maybe that will clear up some of my questions about them. I do have a chance coming up soon. They are playing November 15th at the El Rey 
in Los Angeles. I really do know one thing about Gang Gang Dance: I love this new album and I love Gang Gang Dance. They don't really sound like anything I have ever heard before, yet the music somehow speaks to me. The songs are often intense sort of musical collages -- lots of instruments and sounds seem to interfere with each other but end up creating some beautiful music when all put together.
good.
could easily dismiss the album as another album of ambient droney shoegaze, but you just sort of have to open your mind a bit and let the album sort of take over. There are brilliant short little songs with vocals hidden between the rest of the album, which is mostly ambient sort of guitar pieces. The album is also very full of emotion. Depending on what kind of mood you are in, it could either drive you to tears or make you feel happy and content. This is another sort of album that I think of 
as musical therapy.