There’s a song that Annie Lennox sings – quite beautifully, in the way that she can make something mundane seem ethereal – that triggers in my mind another, completely different song.

Breakin’ the Rules is off Robbie Robertson’s second solo album, Storyville, which is simply an amazing accomplishment. Full of atmosphere and a bit melancholy, just like New Orleans, where Robertson wrote and recorded it.

I think Breakin’ the Rules appears in the Wim Wenders film, Until the End of the World, although it isn’t on the soundtrack. When I hear the song, and in particular the opening lyric, “I wrote you a letter / On Valentine’s Day,” I can see Solveig Dommartin (who plays Claire Tourneur and is wonderful) walking slowly away from Sam Neill’s Eugene Fitzpatrick and throwing back a little-girl look that let’s us know she’s going to be okay.

In fact, I think Robertson’s song is the backdrop to the film’s denouement, which may be why it’s so prominent on my internal soundtrack.

Until the End of the World is a flawed movie, to be sure, but there’s a quirky sensibility and a heartbreaking honesty to it that I love.

Amy Millan, she of the honeyed vocals for Stars one of my top three Canadian musical acts in the past year or so (the others being Broken Social Scene and Leslie Feist), released her first solo CD last year.

While Honey From the Tombs is a bit uneven – perhaps because the songs were written at different times in Millan’s past, and don’t work together as well as I’d like – one song in particular has stuck in my head, and it’s one that I kept waking up to last night.

Skinny Boy sounds like it belongs in Stars’ repertoire, and maybe that’s why it’s my favourite track from the disc. I love how Millan lulls us with that sweet voice, before springing a lyrical twist that throws the pop song on its ear. Clever writing, biting delivery.

I can’t get enough of Canada ownzing the world’s other hockey powers. Led by sniper forward Jonathan Toews, Orr-like d-man Marc Staal, and ice-cube goalie Carey Price, another team of under-20 Canadian hockey players have won gold at the world championship.

This is our third gold medal in a row at the World Junior Championship.

Watching the game – as snow blanketed Vancouver – I even realized I’m on the verge of a change of heart with respect to TSN hockey analyst Pierre McGuire.

I’ve written about how annoying McGuire can be, but his knowledge of the game and genuine affection for and excitement about the players is unmistakable. It seemed, watching these world championship games over the past few days, that he’s dialed down the enthusiasm a bit, which makes him that much more palatable.

So way to go, McGuire. And way to go Canada.

We so rule.

I had been thinking about what it is that makes some science fiction television shows successful, while others – despite how critically acclaimed they may be – only last for a season or two.

I decided that one differentiator was that some of them, like the original Star Trek, Farscape, and Battlestar Galactica, are ultimately about people exploring the unknown. Which is why so many of these shows are like westerns.

I write about this – and much more, including Stargate’s super-successful spinoff Stargate Atlantis – in the latest Channel Changer, which published today.

Some songs are so integrated into my psyche that it doesn’t take much to get them to the top of my internal playlist.

One of the New Year’s party options here in Vancouver was an event that the producers billed “Black Betty.” Every time I caught a glimpse of the poster that song was suddenly in my head.

The song, while often attributed to Leadbelly (AKA Huddy Ledbetter), is actually an old folk tune that may actually be about a flint-lock rifle.

The version that plays on my internal stereo is the dance mix created from Ram Jam’s 1977 version. That’s because I first heard it when going to clubs in Calgary in the early ’90s.

This morning, however, the song that found its way into my mind was Steve Earle’s I Ain’t Ever Satisfied, off his sophomore album, Exit 0.

I can’t quite trace the origin of this song in my history with the same authority as I can with Black Betty. All I know is that any time I hear or see the word “satisfied” juxtaposed with either “ever” or “never,” I suddenly hear Steve Earle in my head.

By the way, prompted by Cheryl, I’m in the midst of a full-on Steve Earle retrospective, and can say I’m enjoying it immensely.