Rollo did not want to. Tunn and Dip were all for it. Fan was for it as well.

- I’m not the sort to even take a shirt off at the beach.
- We are not the sorts to care, they said to Rollo.
- I have definite opinions about witnessing the male nudity of others, and definite opinions about displaying my own male nudity.
- What other opinions could you describe for us? Tunn asked
- I believe that the good Lord gave us shame for a reason, and look what happened to Ham.
- Look what happened to Adam and Eve, naked and sinless. But, we’ll be here in the dark, naked and sunless, Dip said and took off a shoe.
- Think, Fan said as he draped bikini briefs across a forearm like a waiter. Think about how you might feel running through a field shoeless and also cloth-less. Not even the breech-clout of the Indian to keep the freshness of the good honest air from you. We will know this tonight. You will know nothing about this. We will be like balloons filled with helium and you will be like a balloon filled with a child’s peanut butter breath. I would be surprised if our social interactions continued as smoothly as they have thus far. You really should do this.
- I won’t. In fact I will put on this life jacket emblazoned with Mallard ducks so as to be further clothed and protected from The Elements around me. Because The Elements are not to be trusted. They require mediation.
- Are you deformed beneath your protective outer shell? Tunn asked and stood with foot skin to grass.
- I am not. I am lilied.
- If you’re mutilated, I excuse you from service. But no stones, no Urim or Thummim, for you, said Dip from an obscene crouch.
- Lilies, said Rollo.
- You, Fan said as he hung his paisley briefs on a moss-covered branch. You are not excused. You must run. You must run in the way that Ernest Hemingway might have run naked to water. He would have called the activity good, and evoked the simplicity of un-harried actions of living in his gait. On this we will judge you, on nakedness of soul.

They ran through the field, not entirely missing patches of cow manure. When they reached the water, where the muddy bottom would push through toes with great force and give you an unshakeable impression of the color green, The Elements rose up in greeting. They are not to be trusted.

Loudon Wainwright III – “The Swimming Song” mp3

I think that it’s our turn.
I hope you’re wrong.
Put your hand here.
I thought it was here.
Not there, here.
It’s dark.
Tomb-escent, I’d say.
We should have made the t-shirts glow in the dark.
As though it’s of no expense.
But worthwhile.
I wonder.
They’re wrapping up.
Put your hand here.
I thought it was here.
Please, move your hand.
Please.
Please move your feet.
I’m questioning the sense of the flip-flops. My feet, while I consider them as closely as I can in such a dark room, seem agents of a will not my own. I can feel the rubber of the thong running between my toes and over the foot like a root, and I’m pretty sure that there’s no moving these feet, that we’ve been standing here motionless for so long that there’s no moving. Perhaps there’s nowhere to move to.
Except they’re wrapping up, as you said in your own small voice.
That’s true. I’d expect some light.
That’s absent.
Why’d we expect it?
It’s inborn, maybe?
I definitely expected it. There?
Yes. There.

The Mamas and the Papas – “Do You Wanna Dance?” mp3

“I’m studying. I need to finish this paper. I have a full two pages of Virgil translation due tomorrow. I have to read the rest of the Quixote. But there’s nothing wrong with having a taste of Southern Comfort, just to slide into things.”

“I’m going to have to get back to things here, but you’re wrong about CCR. I don’t care who else loves them. It’s just good music. Objectively good. If you don’t like CCR and The Beatles and Bob Dylan you just don’t like music. That’s obvious. Oh, this is black label?”

“I have never heard such a thing. I have never heard such a stupid idea. I have never heard such a thing. I can’t believe that you would suggest that the men of my family do not know, are not intimately acquainted with the works of William Faulkner. It baffles my newly minted mind. What is that black nothingness you drink? So the black label means how many proof? What’s your proof?”

“Let it be written! So let it be said! Let it go down in the annals of the night that no matter how we have striven and to what ends and so on and on and on and you know that I will never forget this moment? That it is unforgettable?”

“I seem to be waking underneath a pinball machine.”

Dent May – “I’m An Alcoholic” mp3

He snapped into a terror, and gurgling grabbed at her too roughly, gripped her arm, swept a foot away and toppled her onto the ground. She landed, her shoulder and head making a triangle with the ground for a moment, the rest of her thumping just after. He held her arm still, which she tried to pull away. He pulled her to him, now held both shoulders in hands and asked, “Why would you do that?” the sleep not quite out of his voice.

Daniel Rossen – “Waterfall” mp3

This was helpful, but I quickly found myself cursing the day that Al Gore invented the internet.  I was addicted to scrobbling, but at least half of my day-to-day music listening was done on the internets.  How would last.fm really know what to suggest if it only knew about half of what I listen to!?

Well – all that has changed for me in a whirlwind week of scrobbling ecstacy as I’ve discovered that not only does last.fm scrobble my lala.com listens, but also everything I listen to on blip.fm and hypem.com (not to mention stuff you listen to on your iPod – but that’s old news).

Now – some of these are more straightforward than others.  Both blip.fm and hypem are intuitive enough to set up (as long as you have an account), but lala.com takes a few steps.  Here you go:

> login to your lala.com account
> click “My Lala” at top right
> then click “Settings”
> then “Beta” on the far right.

There you will find the option to request Last.fm scrobbling on your lala.com account.  You should get an email from lala within a day or two that scrobbling has been enabled on your account.

And now, on faith,  I’ll leave you with some tunes that last.fm is telling me I’ll like.

Panda Bear – “Take Pills” MP3

Great Lake Swimmers – “Your Rocky Spine” MP3

Phosphorescent – “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise” MP3