::NEW BATTERIES::

Last night, I scoured my apartment for a pair of AA batteries so I could listen to -- yes, I'm still yammering on about this -- Sigur Ros's album Agaetis Byrjun through headphones, in its full stereophonic glory. I pilfered some from a boxed-away flashlight.

Headphones on, volume up, music around.

I first heard "Ny Batteri" (which, translated, means "New Batteries") while watching rain-tracks on my windshield turn a chrome stripe on a car into oscilloscopic fantasy. A strange texture is buried beneath the percussion and saxophony, and I couldn't tell what it was. Wood? Metal? Grinding gears? I still can't tell, despite bringing my eardrums closer to the sound. Only Volta knows.

I'm charting "Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa" ("Good Weather for Airstrikes") for my "Fog Project." I hope to have it finished by the end of the week.

The tracks sped by, and I fell asleep, occasionally waking to those moments -- the moments all Sigur Ros songs seem to have -- when the secret comes. The drums kick in, the piano gets lonely, or the angels sing. I slept very, very well.