Turning from Flatbush Avenue on to State Street this afternoon to go feed Spooky I passed a short, stocky, goatteed guy in his late 20s walking in the other direction. He looked at me, said "panda power," and continued walking. Did this man somehow know that I love pandas? Was he mocking my GSOC button, or the fact that, dressed in all black save for the white rubber tips of my converses, I had kind of a panda color scheme going on? Or was he totally fucking batshit? Who cares? It was awesome.

What wasn't awesome was getting locked out of Spooky's apartment because the landlord called the locksmith at the request of spooky's owner, who wanted a different kind of lock on the outside gate leading into the little vestibule where the front door to the 1st floor is, and the locksmith came much earlier than anyone was expecting. It's all resolved now - I have to go pick up a key tomorrow afternoon - but I am already in Spooky withdrawal. I love that cat a lot. SHe is ridiculously affectionate and jumped in my lap while i was watching a tivoed episode of The Tick yesterday. She's adorable.

Bombing Somalia. They're not even particularly good imperialists anymore, are they?

Yesterday Manhattan smelled and people got paranoid.

I have been in Manhattan a total of four times in the last month. That's kind of awesome.

Oh. Mos Def came out with a half-assed new album, which, while not nearly as sexist, homophobic, and anti-semitic as The New Danger Crapfest ft Marky Mark and the Motherfucking Funky Bunch, was boring and haphazard and the best moment was the beat from "Liquid Swords." Geffen released it on Friday, December 29 (which is fucking bizarre since most new cds come out on Tuesdays and December 29 is December 29. Now it's been recalled. Supposedly the rerelease will actually include cover artwork. Maybe Mos could use the extra time and make a halfway decent album which does not cast hip hop as anally raped victim of David Geffen "Homosexuals" and "Israelis." Not that bashing Israelis is necessarily anti-Semitic, but I sincerely doubt that the problem has with Lyor COhen "controlling this rap game" has anything to do with his admittedly vocal (and admirable) support for Palestinian Liberation.