I loved last night’s twin Simpsons references in The 4400, namely the opening sequence with Sherilyn Fenn’s character rushing away from a town whose inhabitants have all been extinguished (which made me say, like hundreds of others, “Geez, what’s with all the death?”) and Maia’s Daddy/daughter day experience (parallel to “Lisa the Greek” (8F12)).

Researchers for the American Heart Association now suggest that dark (a/k/a plain) chocolate can lower blood pressure.

Natalie Hanman wrote a nice piece for The Guardian lamenting the fact that the success of the digital single is overshadowing the LP, but her point presupposes that people aren’t interested in listening to music in long-playing form if given the choice. (A column, by the way, named after a Motown hit, from a company that eschewed LPs as an art form until Marvin Gaye pushed What’s Going On through.)

I have an iPod Shuffle and I almost always listen to LPs in sequence. Her statement that “digital music players, such as the iPod, do not respect the album format—that 40-minute-plus journey into the mind of your favourite band” is false. If anything, my iPod has enabled a more direct connection than I’ve been able to enjoy since I was teenaged. They are ideal for LPs. Hanman also calls for providers to offer “opportunities to complement albums, such as extra live tracks, remixes, music videos, artist interviews and artwork that could be downloaded with an album purchase”—innovations currently offered at the iTunes Music Store.

The mail is here, the spy camera has been received, and we’re settled down for a quiet day.

I’ve neglected to mention: the Elvis Costello DVD The Right Spectacle is now scheduled to be released on 5 September 2005. The Region 0 disc will include every video from the Radar, F-Beat and Warner Bros. periods (except “Jacksons, Monk and Rowe”), each with audio commentaries by the artist, and 70 minutes of scarce European TV performances. If there is an American edition, I wouldn’t count on the complete set of extras.