1/16/2004 09:55:00 AM|W|P|Jackson|W|P|So I'm heading up the stairs to my apartment last night. It was late, and because Ben had just given me a 17" monitor to replace my 7 year-old 15" CRT, I was carrying a large object at the time. I turned the corner at the top of the stairs and immediately noticed something in front of my door. As I approached, I realized that it was a life-sized cardboard cut-out of someone, facing away from me and towards my door. When I got right up to it, I could see the name of my friend scrawled on the back. "A present from Rocko!" I thought. A present it was, but not the kind of present you want to find waiting for you at your doorstep at 1:30 in the am, while carrying a large computer monitor. It's the kind of present that, if discovered by your neighbors before you get home, could lead to fearful glances and whispered accusations. I was Grobaned.|W|P|107426493106967952|W|P|Grobaned|W|P|jacksoncooper@gmail.com1/14/2004 05:21:00 PM|W|P|Jackson|W|P|Sufjan Stevens: "Greetings From Michigan..." -A truly beautiful and delicate album about one of my favorite states. I've been listening to quite a bit of this one. Will Oldham: "I See A Darkness" and "Ease Down the Road" -After picking-up the thoroughly excellent "Master and Everyone" I decided to do a little research, and found these two great albums. One is considerably darker than the other, but I'll leave it to you to figure out which is which. U2: "The Best of 1980-1990" -Why the hell wasn't I listening to more U2 before? Was I just not paying attention? Now that I picked this up, I'm sure I'll have to go back and buy all the albums represented by this collection. Damn. Songs: Ohia: "The Magnolia Electric Co." -I'll admit, I didn't like the track on the split EP with My Morning Jacket. It meandered for what seemed like forever, and didn't appeal to me at all. So when I saw this one reviewed, and saw the reviewer say that it was very different from the previous records, I thought I'd give it a try. Success!|W|P|107411889851589004|W|P|Recent Albums of Interest|W|P|jacksoncooper@gmail.com