In Which The Devolutionist Makes Recommendations For Your Reading/Listening Pleasure

The Great Deluge, Douglas Brinkley - Simply horrifying. I had forgotten so many of these Katrina details. If Satan is reading this (and I have no reason to doubt it) please make sure that when Michael Chertoff gets down there he has to spend eternity wading through chest-deep, fetid sewage towards a Superdome that never gets any closer. And make sure he's surrounded by pissed-off black people.

Haunted, Chuck Palahniuk - Took me half an hour to get through one early ten-page section because it was so disturbing I kept stopping to look up and yell "Arrrrrrrgh" into the void of my studio apartment.  A waiter at Doughboys who saw the book on my table told me if I could get through that the rest of the book is worth it.

The Golden Archipelago, Shearwater - Streaming on NPR until it's released on February 23. One of my favorite bands. Jonathan Meiburg has a high voice and the lyrics are tough to decipher (so pretty much like every other Shearwater album) but the songs have a delicacy and an almost academic formality to their structure. Haunting in a good way.

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (but not really), some artsy girl named Madeline Ava - The original Neutral Milk Hotel album is one of the classic indie rock albums of all time and has inspired thousands of Jeff Mangum groupies (including Yr. Humble Devolutionist) who salivate if Stereogum reports the reclusive singer was so much as spotted taking a leak in the men's room of a Denny's in Amarillo. Madeline Ava has recorded an all-ukelele-and-kazoo cover of the entire album. Weird and weirdly compelling.