So I'm unloading my Sony 300-disc changer so I can start packing up my collection, right? Sometimes while I'm putting CDs away I'll remember almost exactly when I bought them. For example, I just put this back in the jewel case -- I bought this at Brookdale mall the day it was released, back in 1998. It was either Musicland or Sam Goody. I remember being really excited to hear anything new by Garbage, and I listened to it all the time 'till the full-length disc was released a few weeks later.

But don't ask me what else happened in 1998, you know? I mean, I think I'd just graduated and was maybe working at Prudential at that point, but those aren't the kinds of things my brain feels like hanging onto, apparently.

Here's another one -- I bought this at a place called Let It Be Records on Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis. It was actually the first NIN disc I ever bought. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard before, and in a good way. There's a cover of Queen's "Get Down Make Love" on here, as well as a couple other versions of "Sin." For quite some time, I was obsessively collecting all the HALOS, but lately I've just been buying the full-length albums.

Rock and roll is the soundtrack to my life.

The journalist in me wants to change "folk music group" to "indie rock duo."

The Coffee Hag is the first place Jenn Melby (i.e., half of indie rock duo Sister Gin) ever performed. It's also the place my friend Rachel Winter and I used to hang out at all Sunday afternoon, playing checkers and drinking lattes. I think it may have been the first place I stopped in when I went to Mankato the first time as a 19-year-old college kid. It's sort of like the greatest independent coffee shop ever.

Speaking of memories, the 300th issue of Guitar World was in my mail today! It's been published since 1980, and I've been reading (and collecting) it since 1989. I probably taught myself about 80-90 percent of what I know with magazines like this. Also, in a moment of pure genius, they decided to do the cover based on the movie "300." (Guys like James Hetfield and the dudes in Slipknot look especially apropos 'cuz they're always making 300-esque faces...)