Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

Let's go surfing, shall we? [I quit doing the whole "must-read" thing upon much advice from Johnny a while back, but am not opposed to, perhaps, doing some sort of weekly roundup to point you towards particularly good posts/writing/blogs/et cetera. So there you go.]
+The only time you will ever see Color Me Badd, Saddam Hussein, and a certain distinguished American newscaster mentioned in the same post (at Erik's Trip).
+That slut (you know the one) takes on marriage and monogamy.
+Marcello, whose writing gives me a delicious ice-cream headache, has put together a kind of real-life consumer guide (yes, I'm intentionally referencing both Marcus and Christgau; yes, it's about records; the U.K.-U.S. exchange rate is close to one-to-one these days, so U.S. readers, just convert to dollars, approximately, and you'll be fine).
+New OutKast! New OutKast to listen to! Good news, especially as Speakerboxx/The Love Below has been pushed back again, to September. [Courtesy of the fine Phantroll's Waking Ear, which I've re-added to the blogroll under "music." Why I ever de-listed it in the first place is beyond me, frankly.]
+Did I already mention that Paul's coming back to Rub us the right way again? Yay, yay, yay!
+And Chrisafer quit smoking.