Dufflebags: What’s handier than a dufflebag? Nothing, that’s what. What’s that you say? You’re going away for the weekend and your impossibly hip MP messenger bag is too small, but a suitcase would be overdoing it? Reach for a classic duffle, my friend. I suppose you could use a backpack—if you’re a hippie and/or twelve.

Fabric softener: I mean, duh.

Binder clips: These are useful little guys. It seems like I discover a new use for them every day. If someone were to tell me that binder clips had somehow balanced the federal budget, I’d probably have to reflect for a moment before calling bullshit.

Four Tet, “Smile Around The Face”: This came out last year, but it’s totally my springtime jam this year.

GMail: Obviously. I’m not a fan of web-based email, which is why I don’t use it. But if you must, this is a no-brainer smart choice. I thought the whole world had switched over to the Google hegemony by now anyway, but I still get emails occasionally from Hotmail or Yahoo! addresses. I usually write these people back and say, “Hey, could you grab me a Blueberry iMac, a Robbie Williams CD, and a relatively stable geopolitical climate, since you seem so comfortably ensconced in 1998?”

Budweiser: As you know, I’m a bit of a beer snob, but I still loves me a PBR or cheap-beer equivalent now and then (i.e., when I’m already too soused to taste the difference). Lately I’ve been enjoying straight-up Bud quite a bit. It’s classic, affordable, available everywhere, and I like referring to a unit of Budweiser as a Clydesdale. The last few weeks have found me suggesting to friends on more than one occcasion that we drink some Clydesdales, then hoisting a red-and-white can in the air and yelling “Clydesdale!” … often in public.

Hybrid gas-electric cars: Just kidding. No one who reads this blog can afford one of those. But if I’m wrong about that, then … Hey you, buy me a Prius.

Tagless t-shirts: This innovation is so simple and yet so brilliant, it seems like it should have happened long before the 21st century. Better late than never, I guess.

Mike Ladd: I’m pretty far behind the hip-hop curve, even by white-person standards, so I may be one of the last to discover Mike Ladd. Recommended especially for fans of hyperliterate and just plain weird hip-hop artists like Del, Keith, cLOUDDEAD, and Rhymesayers.

If you’re a Minneapolitan, coming to the Weisman Art Museum to hear me read: I’ll be reading an extremely short piece as part of an extremely short reading at the Weisman this Thursday night at 7:30. It will also be especially brief. I’m new to the fine art of plugging oneself in one’s blog without sounding conceited, and also to doing public readings, so go easy on me. If nothing else, it’ll be short and therefore painless.