Here's one to start you off with, Mr. Sponge...

Well, it looks like Mr. Sponge is taking a break from political discussion to focus on writing about music. I can understand his choice. Politics is an obnoxious, depressing, miserable thing to write about every day, especially in this blog format everyone seems so smitten with. The fact is that most issues are too complex to be boiled down to a quick and easy daily post. This isn’t a genre that encourages in-depth analyses and thoughtful commentary: invective, “me-too” bleating, and issue-of-the-day piggybacking are the depressing norm However, I must hasten to add that these bad habits were never an issue for Mr. Sponge, who I’ve found to be a helluva guy and a helluva writer to boot. In the local liberal-blog universe, he is Johann Santana.

But political commentary’s loss is music criticism’s gain. And I’m sure he’ll find the switch liberating. One of my favorite things about The Insomnia Report is that my audience, being the sexiest and best-smelling and most intelligent audience in the world, allows me the luxury of authorial ADHD. One day I can write unkind things about President Bush, the next I can write a goofy country song, and the next I can write about something weird that happened to me five years ago. I really appreciate the freedom and flexibility, and I’m sure I wouldn’t still be doing this if I had to find something new to say about some tedious Minnesota Republican every single goddamn day. So my advice to Mr. Sponge is this: don’t worry about doing just one thing, write about what interests you and what you love and there will always be people willing to read it.

But before you go and chase your muse, Mr. Sponge, you really ought to bring back that post with the worst album covers of all time. Because I’m not kidding you, that was hilarious.