This month's music
Despite the fact that I'm not a music blogger, I seem to spend a good amount of time on music. At least I tend to confine my ramblings to the relatively obscure and (I hope) interesting acts with which my handful of readers might not be familiar. Compound that with my pledge to limit my purchases to two discs a month and there's a recipe for a melange of posts that probably come across like a dish of black-bean salsa with fudge sauce. Taken individually, fine. Taken together, strange and ugly.

All of which is introduction to this month's "Longings." I've already ordered the Anzen Chitai ("Safety Zone") album and I'm not yet quite sure what my other disc will be. I'm divided at the moment between Jake Armerding's "Caged Bird" and Heather Sullivan's "Butterfly." I will, like every obsessive blogger keep you apprised of my choice.

The reason for reaching out for Anzen Chitai - believe me, I'm not a follower of Japanopop - is the song "Deai." Its music video is shown with some regularity on WNVC, the local independent public TV station, and the song is just gorgeous. Lush with orchestration over a grand piano intro and remarkably intimately presented vocals. To me, it's one of those songs that makes buying the whole disc (even paying the shipping from Japan) worth it. This is the second time the strange folks at Mhz television have forced me to buy music. They were, after all, the ones who introduced me to Emm Gryner.