First topic -- I've always obsessed on songs, but I have come to believe that is counterproductive to the enjoyment of music. The Replacements put it most amusingly (on their FIRST album): "I hate music. It's got too many notes." The minute you think that the act of listening is bound up with the selection and repetition of a few great songs that your taste can magically discern, you lose. I was saved from this counterproductive delusion by moving to a town with just phenomenal radio, where I hear at least 100 songs every day that I have never heard before and will never hear again -- as it should be. (With the web and streaming, all of you can hear what I mean -- check out KUT.org, KOOP.org and KGSR.com.)

As for Joni Mitchell's invocation of "false alarms," I think she was referring to Amelia the aviator as an early feminist pioneer, a symbol of the power of women as they were encouraged to enter the factories in WWII, only to be told to go home and be housewives immediately thereafter. That is the false alarm, and Ms. Mitchell identifies with it as a creative force who was both celebrated and dismissed as a "chick singer" in the heady feminist days of the 1970's. I've read interviews with her wherein she obsessed over her place in the pantheon of singer-songwriters, feeling as if "the guys" were dismissing her body of work based on what she didn't have between her legs. While I'm not sure I agree with her -- she is certainly in my pantheon -- I admire her tenacity and articulateness.