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Get this: http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/pick-punch ...and use it on the wife's credit cards. You'll save a boatload of money.

Hey-I got a call this afternoon from somebody letting me know the book is on Amazon's Top Ten Best Sellers' List today. In Performing Arts, Music & Collectibles, but we're in the Top Ten somewhere!!

We're #1!!! Thanks everyone!

According to the book, This is Your Brain on Music, the music that really gets in our head and stays there is what we absorbed during the years of rapid brain development, from around age 9 to 20. For me, that's Beatles, Beach Boys, British Invasion, Ray Charles, Santana. Also '60s/'70s Big Band and jazz, such as Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones on A&M, Dave Brubeck, Modern Jazz Quartet. For me The Beatles are sort of a perfect storm--they were on the charts from when I was 10 until I was 17, and they were also the best post-Tin Pan Alley songwriters as well. A Beatles marathon always elevates my mood, but at least half of that may come from when they came along in my own brain development. That may account for your gravitation to metal and hard rock. For housework when I'm feeling sluggish, Buddy Rich Big Band gets me going every time. There's something else that makes a difference for me--analog playback (mostly vinyl LPs) trumps CDs which trump lossy MP3's. I speak from experience. After my heart attacks I simply didn't find music engaging anymore. I didn't want to play any recordings or play any instruments. I had listened to digital music exclusively for the previous 20 years. Then, not long after my coronary arteries were stented, by stepson started bugging me to pull an old turntable out of the garage and hook it up to his stereo. I still didn't feel like it but he did it anyway. When we spun some records it put a big grin on my face. There's something about analog playback that communicates the emotion of the music better than most digital does. From that I soon bought a turntable (while I was still going to cardiac rehab 3x/week) and my stepson and I started making excursions to antique paviliions, thrift shops and used record shops to build our collections at around $1/copy. Having the turntable got me out of bed, got me listening again, made me get out of my seat every 20 minutes to flip the record, and got me out of the house to find more albums. It brought me back from a post-op moribund state more than anything else in my life. Six years later I have over 1500 records and listen at least a few times every week. And spinning Beatles records on the turntable still puts a bigger smile on my face for a longer time than just about anything else.

Her purse?

We finished the day at #3 on Amazon's Best Seller list in category behind Kirk Hammett's book. Thanks youse guys!

Shipped another one two days ago. Bm

F--- the top ten; it's a badass book. Mine arrived today and I've already been reading it on the shitter ( much more prestigious than some top ten list on Amazon) and discreetly paging thru it during dinner as the spouse blathered on about her day. Goddamn, that book rocks! Maybe it's me but after reading what little I have so far, I really feel like I'm a part of Hamer's history in having had the unfathomable good fortune to order one of the last 10 or so Customs to come outta New Hartford.

Volume 2?

back in Colorado we used to do lunch at this bar and grill place, that for some unknown reason suddenly went on a weeping cowboy country ballad fetish. At one point I finally asked a waitress "seriously, are you trying to get your patrons to commit suicide?" My wife likes Sarah McLachlan, but doesn't want me to play an entire album of her because--as she puts it--"It'll have me reaching for the razor blades."

Rodip: You're going to LOVE The Book! Waiting will only make it a better experience.

Woo hoo! That's awesome. Thanks to everyone who has picked up a copy (or two)!

Oh hey! My copy arrived today! What am I doing surfing the web?

I usually listen to some really dark blues stuff... http://youtu.be/MPNi-y_j0I4 Always helps me to hear about somebody who's got it worse than I think I do.

Assuming our love for you isn't enough, try this:

I suppose that depends on whether you want to stay in that sad space and relish it, or find a way out. If the former, lots of dark alt-country stuff, ala Wilco. If the latter, live Dead from the late 70s. YMWV.