Who cares if it was cold at times this week? When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May. Oh wait. Damn it. Damn the fickle Boston weather.

GRATUITOUS SELF-INDULGENT BIT

Ah, the final edition of In the Mix. I would wax nostalgic, but then I'm not sure of how successful this has been. For that matter, I'm not even sure anyone reads this column. It's not even columnar in shape, damn it. Maybe I'll just wane nostalgic. Wane. Wayne's World! Party time! Excellent!

Sorry. Free association will be the death of me. But it's been great, in a High Fidelity I-am-obsessive kind of way, to be able to ramble on about music. Thanks to everyone, especially those of you who wrote in and allowed me a chance to ramble on even more. I'll be back in the fall with more concert previews and I'll introduce album-release information. And if you have any suggestions for the look of the column (or for the entire music section) next fall, send them my way.

HIS NAME IS... AND HE IS FUNKY

Not much in the grand world of music news this week, although the Artist Formerly Known As Prince has reverted back to being just Prince. I anticipate tons of "humorous" references to him as The Artist-Formerly-but-now-Currently-Known-As-Prince. But the name change is a good thing. For one, it saves me time, since the Crimson doesn't have that weird symbol-thing among its font files. Here's my best attempt at creating it using standard keyboard characters: O!+~. Anyone have any better efforts?

DEVIL OF A HAIRCUT

For those Beck fans among you, he has an eight-track B-sides album (see picture on right) out in full release in Japan. If you want a copy without having to leave the country, you can get it by mail order on his website (http://www.beckdirect.com), but it's going to cost you $31. Ouch. Wasn't the Internet supposed to save us money?

LATE NIGHT

My search for "Party of Five" final episode tapes has flopped miserably. Oh well. I guess it was definitely a ratings flop. That or no one tapes things anymore. Ever notice the blank video-cassette section of stores like CVS has shrunk to a pitiful small quantity?

Is anyone else hooked on those commercials on late-night TV where they advertise musical compilations? It's so much fun to sing along to those 3-second snippets of songs, especially with my short attention span. One moment they'll play some Andy Williams ("Can't get used to losing you/No matter what I try to do"); the next some hair-rock compilation featuring Poison will come on ("Every rose has its thorn/Just like every night has its dawn"). And there I sit, in the warm glow of my TV, shamelessly singing along to everything.