Edie

Thanks! But I don't see how you noticed the teeth with that "honker" of mine. (where is the smiley face with a huge nose?) insert here

Love the schnoz dave tweedling. It was a pleasure to meet you and your wonderful wife.

Again, sadly, in the heat of the moment, I had little time to really TALK to most of the people I wanted to talk to. Next time you come here, mkay???

Oh and Jodi? Are you and Rob heading down here soon? Love to get together with you ANYTIME. Let's make a time of it!!!

Can someone put together a CD with all the pics? I would be willing to distribute....

HA!! I looove the fact that you changed your avatar to the signed one!

hey guys...im emailing some of the photos at high res, if anyone's interested..lemme know and i can copy you on the emails

Me too - ehirtens@yahoo.com

I'm finally coming down from the buzz of Saturday night. I keep looking at pictures from the night and still get all giddy.

 

It was great meeting everyone. I hope you all returned safely from whilst you came (especially those coming from California and Texas and out east).

 

Edie, thanks for hosting and being so generous about sharing your place (I can't remember, but I did give you those tickets for the Abbey, right? I was freaking out thinking I may have lost them). Leigh, thanks for organizing. Everyone else, I had a wonderful time. Sorry for the banter and boring story about the chick in Kalamazoo that told me to shut up. It's been something I wanted to get off my chest for a year.

 

See you soon!

 

Chris

I still owe you the $$ -- I will see you at the venue, mkay?

And you are VERY welcome. I so enjoyed meeting you, and I loved your story.

Now I feel like I need to have "solo" nights with you all to get all the stories straight etc. When one is hosting, you end up "skimming" most conversations and get interrupted often, and too often in the middle of interesting stories that you can't get back to. Wait, what the F am I complaining about???

Edie said she loves me.

I did and I do. You are not like most 17 year olds, I'll tell you that.

ok - i am venturing out of lurkdom!!!

YAY Sara!!!!

I want to relate how I got involved with this crazy shit.

Sara and I meet when we are 6 years old, become bestest pals. Then during 6th grade, she moves to Philly, and I move one town north. We totally lose touch after a very short time. Sara becomes a wistful, distant memory to me.

Fast forward 25 years. I am at my 20th reunion. Sara is there due to another absolute fluke (the details of which I will not go into now). When I see her I immediately recognize her and spontaneously start sobbing that I thought I would never see her again. We talk some and I could tell we had a lot in common. But since it was a reunion, we both move on and talk to other people. We exchange email addresses (a relatively new technology then). We write a few emails and xmas cards, but nothing too serious.

Fast forward to 2004. Sara emails me out of the blue and says that she is going to be in town on the weekend of 10/30 -- was I going to be around and had I ever heard of a band called Wilco? I say, why yes, I am and yes I had heard their music often ('XRT) even though I had never bought any since I didn't buy ANY music. She says she has tix to go to see them at the Auditorium Theatre. I say great, let's go and please stay with us at our condo on Ridge. So she does, we go to the show. While I liked the show -- which was great -- I didn't know much of the music. Sara also gives me several shows to listen to. I do and I liked them enormously. We discover that incredibly, we have lived parallel lives and have soooo much in common. We are now great friends -- again.

Fast forward again to April 2005 -- Sara and I head to Jazz Fest and she of course copps tix for Wilco's State Palace Theatre show the night before. We are very close to the front (I was right behind bbop) and I was knocked out by the sheer power, delicacy and beauty of it, like we all have been in some way. I fall in love with the music. I then get 2 tix for one of the May Vic shows, and sadly Sara couldn't be there. I look for a way to sell it, and stumble into VC and befriend Kidsmoke. Talk about serendipity.

I now have been to 7 or 8 Wilco shows in Chicago and elsewhere (with and without Sara)

I own almost all Wilco's studio stuff, but am missing a few things like MAII

I own the Kot book and the DVD

I have numerous boots of shows that have been given to me and that I have downloaded

I have discovered many bands that I never would have due to the good taste and generosity of people here

When this crazy show thing happened, I signed up for 3 seats (me, Scott and Sara). At that time, Sara was deep in the rainforest in Brazil and didn't know about it until mid-December! She called me from Miami on her way home, responding to my several voicemails to call ASAP. Her first words? "OK, where are we going for NYE?" Obviously, it was even better than that!!

However, the most IMPORTANT part of this is that Sara and I reconnected, and the through her, I have made a number of real friends here on VC and for that I am eternally grateful.

Nope, you

ohhhh lammy, thanks for reminding me -- your peppers are hanging in the kitchen like mistletoe!!

I also want to thank all the people who brought us stuff -- I know many people brought drinks and some brought food, and though I don't 100% know who did what, thanks for all of it!!!

Also, several of you came bearing other gifts -- Jodi, thanks for the Calexico CD and Warner for the NHampton MA Tweedy show. Listened to it (tweedy) in the car today -- and it is awesome just like you said.

Kudos to Jodi and Rob who arrived early bearing meat lasagna for the group and also got to see me pre-shower after running around all day doing errands/cooking/cleaning

And of course a big to my pal Sara/fresh wind who came with multitudes of help setting up and many live shows -- it's always great to have you here, and this time was even more special. Thanks for keeping me sane!!

And thanks again to john Lackey and Troy for the two incredibly cool posters that could not have been more different. Though now I have a problem in that I don't know whether to frame them together or separately. Thanks for the sleepless nights trying to figure that out!!!

And the BIGGEST shout out goes to my hubby Scott for helping me make this a reality. While he very much enoys Wilco etc, he allows me to be a bit more involved.

Also, when I explained to folks that Scott is a musician, everyone encouraged me to post info about his gigs, so I will. Same for my stepson Max who is also a musician and *allowed* me to play some of his music pre-party. His band will be at the Beat Kitchen at some point, so when I know I will post info.

Edie

Johnny, I meant to tell you that Sue took several of them -- she adored it.

Here's the complete setlist:

 

- Julie & Nate

Julie -- Thanks mucho for doing this, first of all. I can't wait to see you again, here or elsewhere at some show TBD!!

Also, I am sure that towards the beginning, Jeff played the first few chords of Mountainbed, then he got distracted when someone said something, and his next song was something else. Am I dreaming?????

that douchebag copped me out of $650!!!" and you guys just going at it about him. it was great.

Edit -- Oh I am quite sure that the language was MUCH stronger than that!!! He still owes me, the rat-bastard.

And I loooove the pics. I didn't take even one picture, I am so bad at it.

I have started this post a couple of times this evening, but have been interrupted each time with various things.

Anyway, some random thoughts about 24 hours later, looking out the living room window....

I am delighted that the folks who donated $$ for this created a real difference in people's lives via Letters to Santa. Heather has done an amazing job making this happen. While being able to listen to Jeff in a living room setting was an xmas gift to ourselves on many levels, what we gave meant so much more. It is "direct" to folks in need in the best sense of the word.

It was absolutely wonderful to have been able to host this. The evening felt really effortless, which for me meant we thought of most things and were able to accomodate people's needs.

I have to tell you, I think we ended up with more wine that we started with and I thank everyone who helped me find my beer more than once. Oh and my cell phone finally showed up -- it was in my jacket pocket in the closet (which is why I could not hear your calls, everyone who called).

It was great to have been able to see everyone with whom I have communicated over the past few weeks. My only -minor- regret is that when you host a party there is always something to do, so I had too few in-depth conversations with everyone. Leigh, my newest sistah, all of the lead up/planning was great and even better to really meet you and your family. I look forward to see you all again very soon.

I loved when Jeff said that he reads VC from time to time, and he called out VCers who complain that "Wilco shows are all the same songs". He said that they have played over 100 different songs last year and that they obviously need to promote the newest music.

The setlist? Fan-freaking-tastic.

The execution of setlist? Fan-freaking-tastic again, only because Jeff messed up a few times and makes such a fun time of it that I almost prefer them Jeff said beforehand that he was a little nervous 'cause he hadn't played in a while. I said not to worry, that there were thirty people that loved him and didn't care. It didn't occur to me until later that he opened up for the Stones a while ago -- now THAT would be a thing to be nervous about, not 30 fan-boyz/gurlz in some living room!

Sue and I both discovered that we are members of the Bruce Finkleman anti-fan club. One of the highlights of my evening!!!

Pee breaks. What more can I say?

I'm sure I'll have more later. Thanks again Jeff and Sue and all you wonderful VC clan for making this a grand reality.

Looking at these pictures, so far the most striking thing is that this is MY HOUSE in the background.

he said something about how jim o'rourke ruins records and was like "no no just kidding, i love jim. but sue...she doesn't like him too much" and jeff was liek "aww i'm sorry honey, i probably shouldn't have said that" and i forget what song he sang, but he sang two lines from one of his songs in his high falsetto-y voice, it was really funny.

ITMWLY

Johnny --

The posters were VERY different -- which was really great. I have one of Troy's for you and several of yours -- all signed --that I am sending back to you.

I am in the midst of tidying and doing laundry so I will post more later.

Suffice to say it was an AMAZING night.

So did he play "Motion Pictures"?

 

Also, below is a pic of the poster I designed for Edie, and I would love to see the one Longie made.

 

Here are the pictures from which Johnny created his amazing poster....

I now officially hate your camera.

it sucks doesn't it!!!

Some please teach me how to use it!!! Please!

Here's my contribution. gawd, I hate digital cameras.

This is from the 6/14/05 greek theatre show in LA. I believe that is ms.y, gogo, bbop's lovely friend, and mr "waldo" bbop himself.

paul, was I next to you there? Donna was on my left....

I hope you're happy Kyle, I actually had to work at my job today.

Me too!!!

WTF???

Shit, now essox is going to have to relearn the quote function.

Hello admins --

When I signed up a couple weeks ago I tried to become a member but was having trouble so I just said forget it -- at some point I'll do it.

Is it working yet? How do I subscribe now?

Mille grazie