I'm taking a cue from Kenan over at Analog Roam, and starting a tradition of posting the track listings of compilations I make. I make some pretty bizarre and wide-ranging collections, so I hope it will prove interesting.

The first selection is a set of music somehow related to the music that graced the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. It's a selection of classic folk and bluegrass tunes interspersed with modern blues / hip-hop / punk-rock tributes to those songs and the artists who made them famous. Or just the sound and style of them, in some cases.

I gave myself the imaginary audience of my ex-girlfriend for this one, since she adored the O Brother soundtrack. It will soon be winging its way to her as a house-warming gift for her new home in Colorado. If she likes this mix, my mission is accomplished.

Without further ado, then...

O Third Cousin Twice Removed, Where Art Thou?

1. Eric Darling - What Will We Do With The Baby-O
2. Last Forever - Jeanine's Dream
3. Dave Van Ronk - Fair And Tender Ladies
4. Gillian Welch - Acony Bell
5. G.Love and Special Sauce - Everybody
6. Retsin - dog and a butterfly
7. Damien Jurado - Rosewood Casket
8. Leroy Carr - Don't Say Goodbye
9. Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train
10. firehose - In memory of Elizabeth Cotten
11. Golden Gate Quartet - Didn't It Rain
12. Robert Johnson - Crossroads Blues
13. Ida & His Name Is Alive - Ain't No Lie
14. TenSpeed - The Most Famous Capricorn
15. New Lost City Ramblers - Pretty Polly
16. Eric Darling - Poor Ellen Smith
17. Leadbelly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night
18. Serena Matthews - Will The Circle
19. The Carter Family - You Are My Flower
20. George Torey - Lonesome Man Blues
21. Norman Blake - Going Home
22. Odetta - Wade In The Water
23. Gillian Welch - The Devil Had A Hold Of Me
24. Last Forever - Ain't Going Down To The Well No More / Poor Lazarus

If you know me and want a copy, take me out for sushi and I'll probably be persuaded to burn you one.

SlushFactory has posted a long, rambling interview with Neil Gaiman. He gives updates on a variety of upcoming projects, including his comics miniseries for Marvel, the Coraline audio book, and the myriad movie projects.

Among the good news tidbits:

• The Good Omens project with Terry Gilliam attached to direct may still have legs. They are $15 million short of their funding target and pursuing a rewrite to bring the film within the $50 million budget they have already obtained.

• Neil is working on the second draft of his Death: The High Cost Of Living screenplay. It appears to still be underway.

• The Books Of Magic movie is apparently beginning to take shape.

• Jim Henson Productions has commissioned Neil to write something for Dave McKean (!!!) to direct!

• And, a Coraline movie project is already stirring! The book was sent to Tim Burton and Henry Selick (who directed the Burton projects Nightmare Before Christmas and James And The Giant Peach), and Selick has already moved to close a deal on it and begun writing script drafts.

The dry season for fans awaiting movies of the Gaiman multiverse may finally be drawing to an end. Don't get your hopes up too much until the clouds actually break, though.

All this and more, not just about the movies, in the interview, so go read Neil's musings to learn why he liked the Spiderman movie, and why he thinks Lord Of The Rings would have been better as a BBC miniseries.

The only summer movie release I have been anticipating with as much dread as the Crocodile Hunter movie is the Scooby Doo movie.

Well, not only have the studio powers-that-be injected fear into my 2002 summer, but they've already begun the process of making me dread Summer 2004 as well. Why? Because a Scooby Doo sequel is already in the works.

Just kill me now.