Mike Doughty’s got a new album out, it’s called Golden Delicious, and I was already hooked just from hearing the 30-second samples.

I’m a monstrously big fan of Soul Coughing. My first take on Haughty Melodic (Doughty’s first “real” solo album) was unfair disappointment that it didn’t sound like Soul Coughing, but over time it burrowed its way down into my brain. My gut reaction to Golden Delicious is that it’s halfway between Haughty Melodic and an over-produced version of Irresistible Bliss (”More Bacon than the Pan Can Handle” might as well be a previously-unreleased track from one of the Soul Coughing records). It’s a little bit more experimental than the last record, but lacks that one’s consistency.

But then, there’s a reason I don’t write much about music.

He’s going on tour very soon, and will be in San Francisco at the Fillmore on April 29th, and I’ve already bought a couple of tickets. (At least I hope I did; the website seems to still be in transition).

Savvy record-buyers should be aware that there’s an extra exclusive track on the iTunes version of Golden Delicious. I still went with the Amazon MP3 version, because Amazon’s MP3 Downloads section is excellent. I’ve never been one of those shrill and obnoxious anti-DRM people, but obviously, getting something without DRM is better than with it. Plus, Amazon’s stuff is cheaper, it’s indistinguishably well-integrated with iTunes, and their customer service is excellent. I’m still an Apple fan and all that, but my loyalty is cheap and can be bought with only $1 per album.

After the ComicCon left me beaten and senseless last year, I was looking forward to the more low-key WonderCon this year. Low-key is what I got.

The little of WALL-E I saw looked good, but at this point, advertising for Pixar movies is kind of like advertising oxygen.

I learned from the Shutter panel that ghost photography has been around since the 1800s or the 18th century, whichever came first.

I learned that panels like the one about the new “X-Files” movie are a lot more enjoyable when the panelists haven’t been drug out of bed after a full night of filming, and instead seem like they really want to be there. I also learned that celebrities really are a different class of human, because they handled awkward questions from people dressed as Link with a lot more grace than normal people would’ve been able to on 15 minutes of sleep.

I finally got my copy of Mage: The Hero Discovered autographed by Matt Wagner, and a copy of the new issue of B.P.R.D.: 1946 (which is awesome, incidentally) signed by Mike Mignola. I’m hoping that neither guy was looking forward to conversation more interesting than “Could you sign this?” because I’m not that good at conversations with strangers anyway, much less in an artificially awkward situation like a comic book convention.

I got a copy of the new edition of Surfin’ the Highway signed by Steve Purcell. There was a good long line of people waiting for signatures.

Speaking of awkward situations, I also interrupted more important and knowledgeable panelists and spoke too much at a panel about the Sam & Max games. But it was very cool seeing and hearing a room full of people laughing at the right moments. (Surprisingly good turnout, by the way, considering that a woman from “Firefly” and the new “Terminator” show was appearing in another room in the same building).

And I started to wait in line to get Bill Willingham to sign my copy of Fables: Animal Farm and Darwyn Cooke my copy of New Frontier, but decided a twenty-minute wait for an awkward “hello” and an autograph weren’t worth it, as much as I love both books.

I think the best way to sum up my reaction to WonderCon: the best thing that I saw all weekend was this commercial for Jack in the Box. (Second place was Kristen Wiig’s hot-air balloon ad on “Saturday Night Live,” but NBC’s stupid site doesn’t have that video online.)

I went looking around the internet for an explanation of the title of last Thursday’s “Lost,” which was called “Eggtown.” That turned up nothing, forcing me to resort to a Steve Miller Band reference. It’s tenuous at best, but I assure you that one bad title is not indicative of my entire oeuvre.

One thing you do discover looking for “Lost” stuff on the internet is that “Lost” fans are wacky. Reading the comments just on one random blog posting about the episode, you can find:

• People who didn’t hear the end, and missed the entire point of the episode
• Eighteen-paragraph long analyses of how this episode’s flash-forwards fit into the overall space/time continuum theory on the island
• DOES ANYBODY KNOWS WHAT THE BLACK SMOKE IS???????
• At least a dozen calls to order
• Detailed explanations that refer to characters by names I don’t recognize at all
• Whoooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!! [note: that's the first time I've ever seen the exclamation-point 1 used non-ironically.]
• Debates over whether the baby would technically count as one of the Oceanic 6
• Debates over who’s hotter
• A tangential flame war over Downs syndrome

I dunno what I could add to all that. I thought it was a fine episode, continuing the momentum of this season without blowing me away or anything. I could see the end coming from a mile away, as soon as they showed Kate & Claire at the clothesline and Sun talking about her baby (as opposed to “our baby.”)

Attempts to turn Locke back into a bad-ass fail when he comes across as such a tool at the beginning. There’s a real fine line to his character, and they keep jumping back and forth over it — this is like the eight thousandth time he’s gotten completely played by Ben, which doesn’t make him seem like a tragic figure under the control of an evil mastermind, but like a doofus. And the way he handled Kate’s mini-insurrection wasn’t so much power-mad dictator as snippy condo organization spokesman. Making a dude bite down on a grenade doesn’t do a whole lot to make him seem any cooler.

Especially when said dude is, after only two episodes, already giving Michael a run for his money as most annoying person you could ever get stuck on a deserted island with. I think the real mystery of the island is how it manages to attract such a ridiculously high jackass-to-normal-person ratio. Any day now I’m expecting a catamaran to wash ashore carrying the dehydrated bodies of Andy Dick and Nancy Grace.

I don’t know any particularly big questions raised by this episode, except how does the end tie in with the prophecy that psychic gave Claire? That horrible things would happen if her baby were raised by someone else? Is it somehow the cause of Jack’s beard?