It's the craze that's sweeping the planet. Today I've been passed the musical baton by fellow TextDriver Justin French, and by Alnisa Allgood so here goes:

Total volume of music files on my computer?

PowerBook: 5.5 GB, 1168 songs, 3.4 days of playing time, but that's just for my elderly iPod. The real stuff is on the iMac (15.9 GB).

The last CD I bought was?

I bought a batch of three last time (whadda ya mean, that's cheating?): Disraeli Gears by Cream, Talkin' Honky Blues by Buck 65 and Guero by Beck.

Song playing right now?

'Tabula Rasa' by the composer Arvo Pärt from the album Tabula Rasa

Five songs I listen to a lot/mean a lot to me?

Five? You're kidding, right? Well, I'll do my best to restrict it to five, but I'm not promising anything. In no particular order,

1. 'Intoxicated' from the album Night Song by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook. Nusrat had such an incredible voice, and on this album he and Michael Brook bridge the hemispheres. This is velvet and sweet and bitter, and his voice soars away ecstatically. I listen to this a lot.
2. 'Wild Nights' from the album Harmonium by the composer John Adams. The words come from an Emily Dickinson poem of the same name, and this is a wild ride. It starts very softly, with the chorus making almost wordless sounds that appear from nothingness, peaks with a huge, dramatic and orgasmic crescendo, and then slides back down to serenity and peace again. If this doesn't make your heart thump, you're officially dead.
3. 'Plastic Factory' from the album Safe As Milk by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. This has a stomping, hob-nailed beat with The Captain growling out "Factory's no place for me/Boss Man leave me be" in his lupine howl. Even if you don't work in a factory (or for that matter, have a 'Boss Man'), play this on the way home from work and your mood will improve exponentially.
4. 'Song of Solomon' from the album The Red Shoes by Kate Bush. Kate Bush has produced so much high quality music over the years that I find it almost impossible to pick just one song. She may not be fashionable, young or 'street', but I keep coming back to her music time and time again. That must mean something — possibly that I'm not fashionable, young or street. I love the mixture of words from the Book of Solomon and the astounding backing by the Trio Bulgarka. There's a slight pause around the middle of the track before both Kate and the Trio come soaring in, and it's then that every single hair on my body stands on end. Every time.
5. 'Revelator' from the album Time (The Revelator) by Gillian Welch. I haven't had this very long, but I already know that it will stand the test of time. Beautiful acoustic guitar playing accompanied by lovely harmonies. It's beautifully melancholic.

I'm passing on the baton to...

Let's see... How about David from fuddland, Pliable from On An Overgrown Path, Sarah from not you, the other one, Lyle from D4D and Mr. D. from Aprosexic.