It's mid-March and it's snowing in Chicago. What better time to skip off to Texas for a couple of days? See you next week!

Haha, fully half of my last 20 referrals have been searches for the Target commercial.

I like when I learn things from my site referrals. I had no idea that Sam Prekop had recorded a song for a Target commercial until I started getting "sam prekop target commercial" Google hits. So I moseyed on over to the Target site and checked it out (the spot is called "Have It All"). It's a cute commercial, with animated squiggles of hearts and clouds and butterflies, not to mention the sketches of soccer balls bouncing off kids' knees and milk suddenly floating into a couple's breakfast glasses. And then there's a guy in a fuchsia shirt holding a dog who's supposed to look like him, except the guy looks like a cross between Ileana Douglas and Owen Wilson, as styled by Carson Kressley (who has the same blond flip as Wilson, anyway). Prekop's jingle is basically just a hook -- "wake up, 'cause I wanna go / you can have it all" -- meant to suggest that you can find almost anything at Target. But it made me think that if they were looking for a summery indie-pop tune with the exact same sentiment, they could've easily gone with Yo La Tengo's light and bubbly cover of George McCrae's "You Can Have It All." In any event, it makes me wish I was in town for Prekop's upcoming date at the Empty Bottle, just so I could request this one. If I'd known, I might've said something when I saw him on Friday!

Personal to M. and E.: Just because I don't share your belief that the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin is the "greatest album of all time" or even "one of the most influential records of the last ten years" does not indicate that I am being willfully obtuse or contrarian. (Perhaps, you suggest, I'm determined to dislike it because it's popular: not so. I'm the fool who likes Kelly Clarkson, remember?) Neither does it mean that I am delusional or, in your words, "nuts." In fact, I like the record, even though I haven't listened to it in at least three years. What I don't like is people bullying me into submission, which does make me less likely to give the record another chance. And so, sure, you can criticize me for that, but ultimately you brought it on -- and besides, life is short. I'll just spend the time I could've given to The Soft Bulletin listening to more My Bloody Valentine and New Order and Basement Jaxx and Sonic Youth and M.I.A and Michael Mayer, thanks.

And some more. I probably won't link to this column every time I appear in it, but you should all be reading Stylus all the time, anyway. :-)