• “Sweet Avenue” by Jets to Brazil
• “I’ll Catch You” by Get Up Kids
• “Always Love” by Nada Surf
• “You Are The Everything” by R.E.M.
• “The Dress Looks Nice On You” by Sufjan Stevens
• “Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)” by Sebadoh
• “Love and Some Versus” – Iron and Wine
• “Skyway” by The Replacements
• “Chesterfield Kings” by Jawbreaker
• “The Way” by Bonnie Prince Billy
• “The Reasons” by The Weakerthans
• “Saro” by Samamidon
• “If Everything Fell Quiet” by Reindeer Section
• “Let My Love Open The Door” by Pete Townshend

What are your faves?

“Move it son, I need your toys, I’m making serious stuff here!” – Sorry chubby-fingered little ones, Legos are not toys anymore. They are the premiere building material for robot nerds and conceptual artists alike. So you can stop building that stupid little house, junior. It’s crap compared to this stuff:

• The Art of Brick: Nathan Sawaya’s Lego Exhibit Hits Philadelphia
• Beijing Olympic Games: The Lego Version
• Mindstorms NXT
• The Brick Testament

It Worked for Johnny Cash… Country legend Glen Campbell has just released an album of pop and rock covers and I’m happy to report it’s damn good — a little over polished, but it captures the spirit of early “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” Glen Campbell well enough. He wisely chose a mix of modern songs that allowed his sweetly emotive and sagacious voice to shine brightly. My faves include “Sadly Beautiful” by the Replacements and “Sing” by Travis. Campbell was joined in the studio by members of Jellyfish and Cheap Trick.

Speaking of early Glen, one of the first 45s I owned (and played to death) was the resplendent “Witchita Lineman,” one of the most beautiful and heartfelt songs ever penned. Big ups to Aunt Mary for giving me that and a bunch of other old vinyl gems when I was a kid.

9 to Fried: We do our best to collect web-based distractions here at UW, but we pale in comparison to our pal Illuminati and his daily collection of office-based time wasters.

Need More Distractions? You got ‘em. Always check out the venerable I Love Bacon. Mr. Bacon has been entertaining me for years with his simple site jam packed with “dumb but fun” photos and links.

Keeping Up with The Spandex Gods: I don’t watch the Olympics anymore, I just read Mikey P’s Olympic Recap everyday:

In men’s synchronized diving, teammates Wang Feng and Qin Kai easily won their fourth diving medal event of the games. Fourth place finishers Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino from the US were docked several points when they dived both off the same board while sharing a single bathing suit. More>

I See Dead Signs: If you dig urban photography and faded old city signage like me, you must checkout the Philadelphia Ghost Signage Project. It’s “a visual record of ghost signs and faded advertisements in and around the greater Philadelphia area.”

Friend Us, Won’t You: Like we mentioned recently, we’re late to the Facebook game and we still don’t realize it’s considered lame. Nonetheless, our FB Master, Scott, is looking for our 300th Group Member. Join now and our 300th member will get a swell prize.

Video: It seems our pal Dave Hill has got himself in another pickle! Check out: “Little Michael Jackson and Me”

99% of the time Facebook is nothing more than a huge productivity-killing distraction and that’s why we like it. “Wow, Jenny’s kids look nothing like her, thank god for that.” “George is playing golf today, fascinating!”

But every so often you traipse across some news you use. Case in point, in one of his status updates, my pal Happy Cog Hoy mentioned something about the new Paul Westerbeg. I was not aware of this and like a crazed music geek, I dropped everything and quickly hit Google for the details.

My findings: I just downloaded the song/record thingie called “49:00… of Your Time Life” and gave it a solid spin. I’m happy to report it’s a lot of fun in a frenetic sort of way (excellent full-length songs mixed with odd snippets) and insanely cheap! “Devil Raised a Good Boy” and “Who You Gonna Marry?” should make some old Placemats fans smile.

To add to the silly nature of the release, it is a single MP3 file that is 43:55 minutes long and it costs only $0.49 at Amazon. Pretty sweet deal! The kind folks at “man without ties” website have broken down the big file into a completely and utterly unofficial track listing.

Download the front and back cover and tray card here, all nicely formatted and sized for printing.

Nasty day here in Miserable City, USA, so allow me to cheer you up.

Daniel Johnston in Philly! One of indie music’s most enigmatic and brilliant artists will perform at The Trocadero on Feb 22. Ticket info. Check out the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston for a primer and check out his website for more good stuff. Our boy Todd has an interview scheduled with Daniel, should be interesting.

Boss Talk: The Internet’s most beleaguered bots gave UsedWigs a secret little shout in today’s soul-crushing installment. Listen to the Chris Harding podcast to find out what it is!

More Mats the Better! Pop Candy has reported “Three Replacements albums and an EP will be reissued in April.” That is awesome news.

Sorry Ladies: Taken.

The Love Report: Our pal and Renaissance comic — by Renaissance, I mean he does a bunch of different stuff, not that he performs at the festivals — Dave Hill has a lovely little video for you, “Hey guys, why spend another Valentine’s Day alone in your bathroom crying into a sponge? Break the cycle with some help from Dave Hill“.

Mom: A little nudge from your pal Jeff… give your mom a call today, or stop by, or invite her over. Give her hug and thank her for putting up with you and all your nonsense for all these years. Your mom is great. I really miss mine. She was great too.