October 13, 2002 | 11:55 PM

Tonight Josh and Debbie came over for dinner.

I made chicken french. And mashed potatoes with goat cheese and garlic. And roasted red peppers and carrots. And fancy vodka cocktails with Stoli and fizzy raspberry lime seltzer. And lots of red wine.

I�m becoming a damned fine cook, I tell ya�. Nothing brings me more pleasure than having people I care about over for a satiating meal.

After dinner, Debbie fell asleep on my futon and Josh and I hung out and talked for hours.

I can honestly say that Josh is hands down one of my top five favorite conversationalists. Especially when the subject is music. I�ve never met anyone who�s as on my wavelength about music as that guy is. Of course we have differences: My favorite Guided by Voices album is Isolation Drills and his is definitely not. As he said,

The road to our Guided By Voices happiness takes a fork somewhere.

But we both dislike Vampires on Titus immensely and that�s the important thing.

Josh understands more than anyone I�ve ever met the importance of history in music�how lame it is to only listen to indie rock and disregard the wealth of genius produced prior to 1991. How if you like punk but don�t listen to 60�s garage rock you�re a chump. And anyone who doesn�t like Al Green is retarded.

Josh loves Etta and Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. And garage rock and psychedelia and indie rock and The Records and jazz standards. He loves Fugazi and likes Beck and thinks Quincy Jones is one of the greatest producers of all time. He adores Black Flag and Off the Wall and The Shins and the Velvets and Sinatra and Motown and The Buzzcocks and Grant Lee Philips. He can reference Fairport Convention and Dusty Springfield and Built to Spill. He is able to discuss at length the cultural significance of Ryko�s dissolution and the vast importance of Rhino Records in pop culture. He digs TVT. He digs Kathleen Hannah. He digs Donovan. He knows his shit. And he has heart. And he has a populist attitude towards music. And he�s a wonderful songwriter and can sing the shit out of anything.

And he comes up with great music related bonmots. We discussed Elephant Six, and he said,

It�s like they all live in their Mom�s attic and don�t do any drugs. Why listen to The Apples in Stereo when you can listen to Donovan? Why listen to the Olivia Tremor Control when you can listen to The 13th Floor Elevators?

Hells yeah.

I�ve never met anyone before who really understood me when I said that what makes a great singer is fucking meaning it. That the difference between Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carry is sincerity. That Whitney Houston is just performing party tricks and that the concern for one�s ego as well as rampant cynicism has ruined pop music.

So Josh and I are going to form a studio recording project. We�re going to make a soul record straight outta 1969 with a Radiohead/Portishead aesthetic. He and I are going to write all the songs and then we�re going to find musicians who dig Donnie Hathaway and James Brown and Aretha to back us up in the studio. We�re gonna have a heavy rhythm section and piano and horns. And we aren�t going to have any live shows. We�re gonna release the album online and hand out free copies of burned CD�s to everyone we know.

So we can say FUCK YOU to the record industry. We don�t want to make any profit. That�s as much a point of the project as the actual creation. It�s a political exercise. We both have jobs and pay our rent. We aren�t looking to be entrepreneurs or make a million bucks or have a stylist or be featured in Spin�s Bands to Watch section. We just wanna say something from deep in our souls and share it with the world at large. It�s fuckin� Radio Free USA all the way baby.

God I love Josh. He truly gets me and not many people really and truly get me.

And his girlfriend is the shit, too. How many awesome guys do you know who date idiots? I can think of many. But Debbie is one of the nicest, kindest, smartest people I�ve ever met, and one of the most thoughtful and interesting. And she wouldn�t be in my life if I hadn�t met her through Josh.

Which is one more reason he�s the shit.

Oh, and Josh showed me this which is truly one of the funniest things I�ve ever seen in my life, and you really have to check it out right now.