Hippycat

Best moments certainly include listening to the original Saturday night album release stream of SBS. That really felt special to me, like we were told a fantastic secret that everyone would want to know, and we were allowd to be in on it. Special thanks to the good people who helped capture and pass on that secret.

Saw 2 great shows, Toronto and Detroit. Meeting the entire band and getting autographs and pics after the Toronto show was super cool too.

Missed moment: My girlfriend couldn't wait around after the Toronto show and missed meeting the band. Maybe next time.

Good god, has this ever been a trying experience!

First off, I got shut out trying to buy a single 5 day pass through the Wilcoworld presale.

Next up, the presale WXRT goes fine, and I actually get one - only to lose it because my credit card info with Ticketbastard is way out of date (my fault for not updating it earlier) and for some reason I couldn't update it correctly while holding onto my pass. So it got away from me.

Now the single ticket presale was a heartstopper too, because now I wanted multiple tickets. My girlfriend wasn't up for all 5 shows, so she only wanted a couple nights anyway. But here I am trying to grab a double for one night, a single again for the next, another double, and then a final single. All told I got 6 tickets for 4 different nights!

We weren't going to make it for Friday night anyway, but I was shooting for the 5 day pass as I figured it would be cheaper than 4 single nights (pretty close, TicketBastard with service charge and whatnot is $47 a ticket!). So I got 2 tix for Saturday, 1 tix for Monday, 2 tix for Tuesday, and 1 tix for Wednesday. That Wednesday single ticket took me many many tries to get, and finally came up at 12:09 pm.

Oh and I got a good deal through Priceline for a hotel. I'd recommend everyone to use that service when looking for a place to stay. Now I just got to get my plane tickets, and book the time off of work. Sick days may come into play!

Next presale, copied/pasted directly from Ticketbastard:

Internet Presale:

Start:Fri, 12/14/07 10:00 AM CST

End:Fri, 12/14/07 12:00 PM CST

The 5 day ticket includes a ticket to each of the following shows:

Friday, February 15, 2008 8:30 PM

Saturday, February 16, 2008 8:30 PM

Monday, February 18, 2008 7:30 PM

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:30 PM

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 7:30 PM

Shut out Was trying every second since 9:59, for just 1 ticket. No luck. Now there's this:

There are currently no tickets available for this event. Please check back later as availability is subject to change.

It's defintely relativly safe if you stay around the theatre, it does get a bit sketcky as you go south. North as well (but only because its very secluded, most everything in the area is shut down by 9).

 

You really have no reason to be worried though the train is right by the venue and there will be lots of cabs by the venue.

 

 

I would reccommend saving your money and taking a train back from the shows. The red line is a block from the venue and only costs 2 dollars. If your staying in the loop (i'd assume around grand or lake or even Jackson) its not going to be more then 30 min. on the train; a cab will take a few min. less at most. The red line runs very frequently.

Thank you very much. I was just imagining myself, perhaps a little drunk, after the show and not exactly familiar with the area. That's the reason for thinking a taxi back might be easier than the train. But I just looked at the CTA schedule and the trains run pretty much all night, and like you said pretty frequently too. So that certainly is doable. Thanks again.

Does anyone know if the neighbourhood around the theatre is relatively safe? What's the chances of catching a taxi around there? Most likely I'll be getting a hotel in the Loop area, not exactly close, so I'll proabably train it up, but taxi it back.

Only read a couple of his books, The Naked and the Dead and Tough Guys Don't Dance. Got about half way through Harlot's Ghost before giving up. Naked was certainly the best of those three. Bad year for writers - Vonnegut dieing earlier this year saddened me a lot more.

Excellent quote from Tough Guys, that I printed out years and years ago and keep on a cork board near my computer:

I then wrote a longer note which I found in my pocket the next day. For some reason I gave it a title: RECOGNITION:

"The perception of the possibility of greatness in myself has always been followed by the desire to murder the nearest unworthy."

Then I underlined the next sentence:

"It is better to keep a modest notion of oneself!"

There's a torrent available. Austin.City.Limits.S33E05.Wilco.HDTV.XviD-FQM. Found a link through Mininova to a private site with the awful name of Funfile.org. That site is still taking sign-ups. Torrent is 1.38 gigs.

Not that I'd ever advocate using such things.

This thread is the equivalent of telling me that, just maybe this year, there will be Christmas every day! A very nice reprieve from some gloomy crap that's come my way lately. Fingers crossed this is successful.

What about John Turturro voicing the helldog!!!!!!

Made me laugh until my sides hurt. That was...sublime.

Man, that is a good movie! - I'd have shut you up.

There was only one good thing about that movie. And that was much more of a visual thing.

Re-reading this one (for the 3rd time), easily one of my favorite novels:

Reading this one at work, was loaned to me from a friend. Not really grabbing me:

Next up will be re-reading Ken Follet's amazing Pillars of the Earth, because I've recently met him and got signed copies of that plus it's sequel which has just come out called World Without End, which of course I'll read after Pillars.

Only walked out of one movie, Sexy Beast. The projector was all fucked up and after about 10 minutes into the movie it was giving me a migraine. I left and got my money back. Still haven't watched it since.

Though one time my cousin and I saw a movie that was so bad that at about the halfway point we decided not to walk out but rather ruin the movie for everyone else by doing a loud MST3K style routine during it. The movie: Summer of Sam. Personally I think the rest of the audience (maybe 10 people) approved of us, and it's certainly was the time I laughed the hardest and longest. Man was that ever a shit movie.

I'm partial to both of John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness and The Thing. I like The Thing more, but I always appreciate it better when it's cold out (actually it's rather nice today, sunny and relatively warm). Of course the DVD for The Thing is loaded with extras too, but that's not really important tonight. Prince of Darkness also has Alice Cooper in it, so there's that.

Myself I'm sticking to some gorefest zombie flicks tonight: Dawn of the Dead (the remake), and 28 Days Later. Though if my girlfriend starts getting too freaked out I might just put on the Halloween episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for her.

Thanks Weirdness! Your work is VERY appreciated!

Just thought I'd share the news, because I know it was a popular site for some - and down right despised by others. I haven't used it much in the last year and I felt that opening it up to so many (I think they were at 180K members) would make it a prime target to kill. Seems like I was right.

http://www.slyck.com/story1605_OiNK_Busted

OiNK Busted

October 23, 2007

Thomas Mennecke

 

In what is being touted as a victory against the "biggest source of illegal pre-release chart albums", the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) concluded a joint two year investigation that has lead to the dismantling of the popular BitTorrent site OiNK. British and Dutch police coordinated their efforts which led to the arrest of the site administrator in the UK, and the seizure of OiNK's servers in Amsterdam.

 

OiNK was a highly sought after target because of its alleged status as a pre-release gold mine. While pre-release material typically shows up on most BitTorrent sites given enough time, the IFPI charges that more than "60 major album releases have been leaked on OiNK so far this year, making it the primary source worldwide for illegal pre-release music."

 

The arrest of OiNK's administrator is a significant escalation in copyright enforcement. Typically, individuals in such positions are only taken into custody without an arrest, however today's events are a bit extraordinary. BitTorrent administration has become a risky game, with operators running out of countries to safely call home.

Also: Reuters has the story, which also explains why the admin was arrested: "British police said they arrested the 24-year-old on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law."

This was my fifth and the best Wilco show I've seen. Fourth for my girlfriend, who earlier this week had a death in the family, so this was a perfectly tremendous distraction that I think really helped take her mind off some of the crap she's having to deal with at the moment. I doubt we'll ever hear Hate It Hear the same way as I use to. It totally brought her to tears.

The pit floor shaking was unreal! It was awesome.

Really the whole expereince was incredible. From flying right through customs and only spending a few minutes in tunnel traffic (I didn't even think that was possible anymore), to getting great parking, a nice table at Hockey Town and some excellent munchies and drinks, to meeting up with some friends who were Wilco fans but virgins at seeing the band live. We wound up having great seats (bought through the pre-sale) in the 3rd row of the pit. And then the band freaking rocked! And we even both really liked Andrew Bird too. Earlier this year we caught the band in Toronto and while I liked Low, my girlfriend didn't. But this time we both agreed that Andrew was pretty damn cool. I can totally see why they hooked up with him. Highlights? Hmmm, actually the whole damn thing! At no part was it just OK. It was ALL great!

Thank you Wilco.

Super cool!

....It's only a 64kbps broadcast...

And it still sounds great! Very good recording work anyway. Not to mention the band is fucking fantastic!!!

Well the last time I saw them play the Detroit area they had My Morning Jacket open for them.

Slim chance that will happen again.

Though to be fair I saw them play in Toronto this year with Low, and I thought they were pretty good. Not necessarily a great compliment for what Wilco brought on later, but good in their own way. The M's in London last year were terrible though. Would have been better without an opener.

So could be anyone really.

PS - If anyone from Wilco reads this, please play California Stars when you play Detroit. Thanks

Sounds great, but I'm not sure I could listen to a whole concert of nothing but 'Freebird'.

After tossing back rows 'S' extreme left, and then 'T' in the middle, I got 3rd row in the pit sec 500! A bit to the right, but damn close. Much better presale experience when I got shut out for Massey Hall earlier this year. Had to put up with Ticketbastards nonsense to get tickets for that one.

Anyhoo, looking forward to this one!

I've seen a lot of great shows at the Fox, including Neil Young doing solo acoustic 4 or 5 times.

I saw my first Dylan show there, way back in 1990. The 'Buckets of Rain' show.

Is the Fox the largest theatre Wilco will play compared to the other venues they have been playing in North America since SBS came out? Will that correspond to lower ticket prices perhaps?

Don't know how it compares to everywhere else, but according to Wikipedia The Fox is almost twice the size of Massey Hall (the last venue I saw Wilco play), with 5174 seats at the Fox compared to 2,752 at Massey. I doubt that will mean lower ticket prices though. Got to pay for those Wings somehow.

And not for nothing, but I go on vacation for the first time in years, and the week I'm out of town I'm going to miss both Roger Clyne AND the Flaming Lips??? Goddamn it!

Detroit date got added today ---> Wednesday Oct 17 at the FOX! Sweet!

Ticket info still TBA, but this news made my day. It's been a while since the band has played a downtown venue in the city. And this is so much closer to where I live.

Thank you Wilco for coming back this way.

Cut out for me too. Lots of skips and digi-noise. Got it back just to hear start of Kamera. Still a couple skips here and there, but still sounding good!