A shadow came this morning and left some candy in my shoe

At least the asking for money got all you guys talking again. See how I bring people together! I'm really hoping Warren Buffett will stumble upon my blog. It sounds like he has nothing better to do with his cash and we all know what a fan of Omaha I am.

I feel like I should give you, dear reader, an update on my life but sadly it has mostly been work, work, work. Jeff and Mads (the Dane) and I are going whitewater rafting in West Virginia next weekend. We're meeting up with Carrie there who has sadly left us for the excitement of the greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area (Summer, I really need to get you two in touch with each other). It has all the makings of a Deliverance moment, but I'm thinking it's just gonna be fun. Beckley, West Virginia, we are coming to rock you!

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So on to today's album. This one has a long history with me. I'm pretty sure I first bought Don't Try This At Home by Billy Bragg on tape at the record store in the Texarkana mall when I was in 9th grade. I was a big fan of 120 Minutes on Mtv and they played the video for "Sexuality" about three times total. That was enough, though. I was sold.

So I bought the tape, listened to "Sexuality" over and over again and gave the whole thing a listen a couple of times. I liked it, but eventually gave up on it. It just seemed too British and I didn't understand half the stuff he was singing about (like what the hell is a "two up, two down two point five with a dish on the roof for the soaps?").

The poor tape just sat around in a drawer until the summer of 1998. I'd just gotten back from a semester in London and my "English" was much better. I popped the tape in and suddenly I understood everything. In the next year I bought every Billy Bragg album I could get my hands on in Columbia, Missouri and I've been a huge fan ever since.

Don't Try This At Home also happens to be an excellent album in the Billy Bragg discography. It was a major departure from his early work that usually just featured Billy and his guitar. The songs are more musically intricate but they still keep all the emotion and humor that I love in all his stuff. I'm going to say it's my third favorite Billy Bragg album, but number one in sentimental value.