Chris – I think I could bore for the Canadian Olympic Team when it comes to the issue of restrictive copyright laws. Sure, everyone needs to make a buck. But, at a certain point, being able to partake and share in first-quality information and content in the short term often, usually, historically, leads to profits in the long term. In this, thank god for libraries, where a kid can read Faulkner’s the Sound and the Fury, listen to Miles Davis’Sketches From Spain, or watch Orson Welles Citizen Kane unhindered by user fees that serve copyright holders who’ve produced nothing. Allowing free access to landmark works is how culture develops. Monetizing the hell out of every movement just isn’t the way forward when it comes to introducing new generations to the basis of where culture has sprung.

You see? I’m already boring you!

Clara – Yeah, that smell, that smell that is heavy with nostalgia and childhood magic. I love it. And yes – it’s free to everyone!

I’m glad you approve of the Costello. I flipped a coin to see whether it was going to be that tune, or Nick Lowe’s “When I Write The Book” as performed by pub-rock champs Rockpile. Thanks for bringing it up, so that I could get the Lowe number in there, too!

For me, it’s the smell. Familiar. Full of potential. (I wonder if this would be the case if I hadn’t spent so much time in them as a kid? Do libraries and used bookstores just smell…musty? to some people? The horror!) And they are the great equalizer, I’m always struck by this; rich, poor, old, young, you see it all. I love what they do and what they represent.