Continuum released its list of the books it picked for the next round of its 33 1/3 series, and my proposal to write about the Jayhawks' Hollywood Town Hall didn't make the cut. No surprise, particularly given the bigger cult status (or just plain commercial success) of most of these picks. The list I received only had album titles, yet I only needed to look up a couple (Throbbing Gristle?) because the rest are easily identifiable. I could argue the worth of a couple of these (do people who would be interested in Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love even read? If they do, Carl Wilson, who keeps the great blog Zoilus, is likely to blow their minds a bit), but by and large it's a list of books that I'd like to someday read. Some I even thought about pitching myself, such as Shoot Out the Lights and Double Nickels on the Dime.

I still think there's an interesting story to be told about Hollywood Town Hall, so maybe there's a lengthy magazine piece about it in my future. As for the series, I thank editor David Barker for the chance to submit a proposal. It couldn't have been easy to pare down the list.

The list:
Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister, Scott Plagenhoef
Steely Dan - Aja, Don Breithaupt
Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights, Hayden Childs
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine, Daphne Carr
Guns 'n' Roses - Use Your Illusion, Eric Weisbard
Patti Smith - Horses, Phil Shaw
The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime, Mike Fournier
Nick Drake - Pink Moon, Amanda Petrusich
A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, Shawn Taylor
U2 - Achtung Baby, Stephen Catanzarite
Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Drew Daniel
Kate Bush - The Dreaming, Ann Powers
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me, Kate Schatz
Brian Eno - Another Green World, Geeta Dayal
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life, Zeth Lundy
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica, Kevin Courrier
Celine Dion - Let's Talk About Love, Carl Wilson
Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams, Anders Smith Lindall
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs, LD Beghtol
Television - Marquee Moon, Peter Blauner
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones, David Smay