You can see the tumbleweeds rolling through the Raptor Space these days as the doldrums of summer saturate our lives with a heavy blanket of last-chance summer trips or regret for not eating that extra slice of pie at the state fair. But not here on the WCR, comrades. I've been doing my part for capitalism by cold calling, or what I refer euphemistically to as "business development." My consumption of meat is sky rocketing along with my hyperactive exercise regimen of swimming and biking.

There are big events on tap for the next couple of weeks: three nights of Phish at Red Rocks; Ding's wedding in Estes Park; surgical excisement of a mole; one to two weeks in a walking boot; and a trip to Chicago. As you can guess, my fellow birds of prey, I will blog it out on all of those topics and might throw a picture or two up here for your claws. I'm sure you can't wait to see how cranky I am with a plastic boot affixed to my leg! Who knows, maybe I won't be cranky? Possibly I can apologize to Stevie for failing to call her the last time when I was in Chicago? Maybe my boss will meet me for dinner and give me a raise! I don't want to jinx myself, so I'll adopt a position of pessimism for all future endeavors.

My goal is to review a couple of books on here for the next few weeks. As usual, though, I won't rip them apart like a good raptor should and spend time with self-aggrandizing book reviews. Blogging is pretentious enough, so I won't waste too much time on indulgent reviews in a vain attempt at self-reference to works that, in no way, relate to me or my immediate life. In the meantime, you can enjoy these videos of Beck, MGMT, and a few other talented folks covering tracks off of the VU's album The Velvet Underground and Nico.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "All Tomorrow's Parties" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Run Run Run" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.