Impossible, because he is thirty, and I am fifteen.

(Wait, even that math doesn't work. Time is warping oddly here in The Future.)

He has one of those voices that you only have to hear one single note to know immediately that it's him. "Losing My Religion" is still one of my all-time favourite songs.

I can't believe he ever had all that pretty curly golden hair. I've always pictured him as a bald skinny man in a suit made out of Fed-Ex packages.

The video you have linked to primarily demonstrates how awesome Mike Mills is.

If I had to pick five albums that would be the only music I could have for the rest of my life, Murmur would likely be my very first choice.

REM was very, very much the soundtrack of my teenage years. I still remember driving to the mall at the crack of dawn with my best friend so that we could be there when the Ticketmaster opened. We were so mad that our stupid parents wouldn't let us sleep out for tickets, but we still got THIRD ROW seats. We were so excited, we cried. I will never love another band that much. Happy birthday, Michael Stipe. So weird that you're such a huge part of my life, yet you have no idea who I am.

I thought the whole R.E.M. thing was over years ago.

It's Leonard Cohen being 75 that bugs me.

Some recent pictures of Stipe.

Now I just want to suck on a cough drop.

My cousin and I did some unsuccessful Stipey stalkage when I was in Athens (the Southern US one, not the original) last spring. We knew it was pointless, but we couldn't help ourselves.

I once ran into Peter Buck in Seattle, literally. Walked right into him in the middle of an intersection.

Who's with me in hoping that REM releases an album of nothing but old-timey covers? Michael Stipe singing Poor Ellen Smith would prove God for me.

OMG That CD Letterman is holding up during the introduction is ENORMOUS!







Just kidding, I still have a Big Box of Vinyl, including that one