Recession gestures: I see people, myself included, whose circumstances have not been changed by the downturn in the economy, making small recession gestures as if to practice or maybe to placate the economy gods. My sister Colleen went Christmas shopping without a credit card or a cell phone. We are hanging clothes on racks instead of using the dryer. Maybe you've been in traffic or in a store and had the thought: this is just not sustainable. Our best rack was $40 at Reny's, a better Maine made rack than the one for $87 at the Green Store. Our friends from Philadelphia, Vicky and Larry, spent a night here, and they had a cool $10 rack they had bought at Ikea (we don't have one in Maine) on the way up. We're offered to keep it for them until they come up in the summer.

The lists of best albums of 2008 are all around and it's interesting to see what lists reference my musical mix selections. The thing is I don't think in terms of albums, but in terms of songs. In studying poetry years ago, some teacher or theory suggested that you should approach a poem as if you found it on the street with no idea of its context and no knowledge of the author. I'm always looking for great songs. I don't care so much about the albums. That's why my musical genres go all over the place. Here's the January Mix. Great to have a new one from Toni Childs after 14 years, and good to see Michael Doucet reaching beyond cajun music.