While stumbling around my website the other day, I discovered that the music index page had various problems, starting with its notion that I was still working on my 2006 lists. I spent a bit of time cleaning that up, including adding some relatively new things, like the metacritic pages. The page I send to publicists is still pretty old and increasingly shoddy. Haven't done much to it yet, probably because I'm a little confused myself about what I want to do in terms of music reviewing. But it occurred to me that perhaps there is enough critical mass to the Rhapsody Streamnotes (new term, just thought of it) to warrant their own section. So I hacked together a little something based on the old F5 framework -- actually, the newest of the old music writing folders -- and scrounged through the blog, the notebook, and a few other nooks and crannies, and voilà. I rounded up notes on 215 albums, mostly from my year-end round-up posts.

The notes should be taken with several grains of salt: they are summary judgments based on one or two plays, never (to my recollection) more; they are often done when I'm working on something else; they play on the computer speakers, which aren't bad but aren't as good as I normally use, and aren't connected to follow me around the house; I don't have access to the packaging, which cuts into my information flow as well as doesn't look or feel right. Also, Rhapsody itself isn't all that satisfactory: some cuts are missing (especially on hip-hop records); sometimes it skips over a cut (which I'm unlikely to notice unless I'm actually looking at the screen -- like, almost never); sometimes the stream chokes leaving an annoying break in the sound; sometimes I have trouble finding a record, or find multiple versions and am not certain which is best. Also, a lot of records aren't available, but that's not a caveat -- just a gripe I wanted to get in.

The streamnotes are organized into chunks, mostly corresponding to previous blog posts (often with introductions, since I had them). In general, I collect them until they reach some critical mass, then dump them out. I tend to do this in fits and starts, often just because I want a break from the jazz grind. I did another dozen or so (not out yet) last week while I was working on the update of Robert Christgau's website -- seemed like a good time to check out his CG picks.