Well, my two days off have approached and officially begin tomorrow. Once again, I’ll be working on stuff for the magazine… I’m most likely going to book my flight to Nashville in the morning and then maybe look into getting more business cards printed in the afternoon. We’ll see what the day brings.

I bought my first two country CDs on Friday. ha. I’m generally not a big fan of country music, but I broke down and picked up Carrie Underwood’s debut and Rascal Flatt’s re-release of Me And My Gang (which now includes the bonus track, Life Is A Highway). I like them… It’s too bad Carrie didn’t write more on her CD though (she only co-wrote one track). Plus she didn’t even get a section in her CD jacket for lyrics or thank-yous. Poor girl. What a way to cheap out on a multi-platinum selling CD… It’s still good though.

I officially registered for school in the fall. Eek. I don’t really want to go to school, but since it is right here in town I figure I might as well do it since a lot of expenses are out of the picture. Plus I can keep working, not lose ground in the music industry, and have something to fall back on down the road…

Now for some interesting tidbits of music news from the past week or so (the majority from Billboard)…

- Linkin Park’s new CD is finally releasing in May, with the new single hitting airwaves in the first week of April… It’s supposed to be quite different. I’m intrigued and looking forward to hearing it.

- P!ink is teaming up with TrekStor to create an MP3 player based on her name, likeness, and music. Yeah, I don’t know who the heck TrekStor is either…

- Starbucks and Concord are forming a record label… Rumor has it Paul McCartney is close to signing a deal. Want a grande vanilla creme with that Sgt. Peppers?

- Wal-mart will begin to carry HD radio receivers in nearly 2,000 stores in the USA. If you’re not American and don’t know what HD radio is, hop over here. I think they are trying to compete with satellite radio a bit, even though they are two very different things… A station I sometimes listen to from L.A. broadcasts in HD, but I obviously listen to it over the internet so it doesn’t apply to me.

- High School Musical is hitting the ice. No, not hockey… Now that would just be silly. They are figure skating, of course. Tickets go on sale April 2nd.

- Microsoft wants unsigned bands to create music inspired by the Xbox 360 and its video games. Pretty cool concept… Winners will get to record with Universial Music Group.

- Kelly Clarkson finished recording her new album last month and is currently in the process of doing the promo work for it (promo shoots, videos, and so on). It will be called “My December” and is hopefully releasing in Mid-spring or summer. Clarkson describes it in her latest journal entry as “intimate, raw, personal, [and] rock (although some are very sweet and soft).” Looking forward to hearing it…

I think that’s all for now. You are dismissed…

Rock on.