So, there is someone out there after all!

OK. So, I've been absent for the past couple of weeks. I really didn't think anyone would notice, since approximately four people even know this page exists. But at least one of you (yes, Little Miss Know It All, I mean you) has noticed my lack of blogging activity the past few weeks, and commented upon it.

I have no worthy excuse. Yes, I have been on the road for work. Yes, work itself is crazy busy right now. Yes, I do still go home once in a while and I could do this from here. See, no legitimate excuse.

It's not that I haven't had ample inspiration. Why, Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni both died the same day back on July 30 (sue me, I'm a film geek). Barry Bonds FINALLY broke Hank Aaron's home run record (after the longest deathwatch on record). I was once again mistaken as a lesbian at a social event, to amusing and philosophical result.

So you see, there have been ideas. But late summer life has interrupted. I expect come winter I will be blogging quite a bit, if for no other reason than to keep myself awake (and apparently amuse LMKIA). I will have inspiration again.

Until then, let me leave you with a classic: the desert island disc list. I realize in this day of iPods that the idea of parsing one's total music collection to 10 albums, as we used to say in my youth, is a bit of an anachronism. Well, so am I. I like to think the parsing helps focus on the music as it was created, that is, which albums are so perfectly constructed that you could listen to them over and over again, front to back, without going berserk? This is the ultimate goal of a desert island disc list, since, after all, you are on a deserted island, and probably alone in the process.

I am fully mindful that if I were to ever actually be on a desert island, something bad probably would have occured to deposit me there, and it is unlikely that said island would have either electricity or a functional CD player, and I probably would not have these 10 discs with me, but really, people! This is a game of what if, not a documentary, so bear with me.

Here, in no particular order, are the 10 discs I would most wish to have on a fully-serviced deserted island:

The Pretenders - Pretenders II
The Clash - London Calling
Crowded House - Recurring Dream
Abdullah Ibrahim Trio - Cape Town Revisited
Ella Fitzgerald - Basin Street Blues
Luar na Lubre - 15 Aniversario
Pink Martini – Hang on, Little Tomato
Roxy Music - Avalon
Monkeywalk - More
k.d. lang - Invincible Summer

The beauty of this list is, each disc is a gem in its own right, and together, there's a significant musical banquet on display. Angry at being deserted? Meet The Clash. Happy with the tropical good weather (it must always be a tropical island)? A little k.d. lang sets the mood. Feeling international? Have you met Luar Na Lubre and Abdullah Ibrahim? Just looking to mellow out and enjoy the view? Choose any of the others. No matter what mood may strike, there's a disc on this list that fits the bill. It also doesn't hurt that there are some amazing songs on each of these records, or that each entire disc hangs together perfectly.

There's my list. What's yours? At some point, I'll post another list, of the perfect desert island DVDs. Because a perfect island not only has electricity, it has TV and a DVD player too!