All right, who else gets fired up when a new Wilco CD comes out? Anyone? Just yours truly and folks still with me after this line? Longtime fans are sure to dig the angst-embracing alt-pop rockers' sixth studio disc, "Sky Blue Sky," out today. Taking a break from the alternately trippy and hushed sonics of Wilco's last two discs, on "Sky" mainstay guitarist/vocalist Jeff Tweedy returns to the scarred beauty of his rich slide skills. With Tweedy's voice soothingly sandpapery, his mood a bit sunnier than usual and the band's melodics rock solid, who knows? Nonbelievers might even hear a track or two on radio this time out. On Nonesuch Records.

— Derek Paiva

UH FLASHBACK

COMIC COLLECTIVE

Before there was "Bento Box," there was "Slice O' Life," Deb Aoki's comic strip that ran in the University of Hawai'i's Ka Leo student newspaper. The cast of characters includes Aoki herself, as "a caffeine-fiend, procrastinating Hawai'i gal with an artsy streak." Six years of strips (1987-1993) are collected in a double-duty book from Bess Press. Flip it over and you'll find Jon J. Murakami's "The University of Diverse City," which also ran in Ka Leo. The book is $15.95 at most bookstores. On Saturday, Aoki will sign books at the Hawaii Book & Music Festival, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Bess Press booth and 3 to 4 p.m. at the Borders Books booth.

— Lesa Griffith

FINAL WORD

"People compliment me on being thin, but I'd rather they notice that I'm healthy."

Yunjin Kim | the "Lost" actress, in Glamour