Queen Amaranthine

Took the time this morning to read all the lyrics. Very cynical and humorously bleak. Just how I like my Tweedy.

"I hate you less/Than the rest" fits cynical and dark humor very well.

I like the song overall, but for some reason the word "swine" gets in my way. It fits well rhyme-wise, and I get the idea in using the word, but something about it seems to break the otherwise smooth lyrically flow. It stands out in the way that "piss and blood" does in "I Might," though not as gross. Maybe that's the point, though.

What kind of pets do you have? What are the benefits and drawbacks of that kind of animal as a pet? Any good or funny pet stories to share here?

Also, what would you suggest for young kids? My kids, ages 5 and 6, are asking for a pet.

We sort of share a terrier dog with grandma who lives down the street. We dogsit him sometimes and claim him as our own too. He's great with kids but is definitely grandma's baby. My son has a mild allergy to dogs, so we don't want one at home full time. We love cats, but my son and I are too allergic. I would like a cuddly rabbit, but the dog would go after it in a split second, and I don't want to risk anyone forgetting to make sure the rabbit is securely put away when grandma and the dog come over.

A few weeks ago my son asked for a pet snake. While I have no objection to a small pet snake itself, after doing a little reading I found out that they have to be fed mice. That was the deal breaker. What snakes do out in the wild is their own business, but I don't see myself purchasing live mammals to be something's food. There aren't any vegetarian snakes, are there?

Currently we're thinking about a turtle or fish. Maybe a gerbil? I might not object to a tarantula, depending on what it has to be fed.

One of my favorite writers. Hysterically funny and shockingly poignant at the same time.

Has anyone else here seen Sedaris' Santaland Diaries performed live? Hysterical. The performance I saw didn't star Sedaris himself, but the guy who played the department store elf perfectly nailed Sedaris' humor and style.

Amy Sedaris is hilarious as well. This book is funny and contains surprisingly practical recipies and crafts. I tried out the fried zuccini recipe and it was really good!

...and i am quickly adding another post because I just realized that I have 666 posts. EEK!

Sorry, it's the Filipino Catholic superstition in me that will never fade despite my othwerise scientific,evidence-based ways.

And with this: 667.

Superstition and the otherwise Unexplained sure do have a way of trumping scientific, evidence based ways. My Irish Catholic grandmother instilled that in me.

As for the song that is the subject of this thread, it is holding up for me. I listened to it twice in a row on my way home from work today. At first I overlooked Rising Red Lung and Black Moon but now I'm thinking they are two of the most amazing songs on the album. I'm still not getting into Sunloathe, though.

2. make messier artwork.

This indeed!

My poor husband had no idea what he was doing when he downloaded YHF from Napster in 2002. He burned it onto a CD, handed it to me, and said it sounded like something I would like. Long story short--oh, yeah. No doubt my husband still has regrets about handing me that CD, listening to me ramble on about the band (I've since learned to curb my enthusiasm!) and being dragged to a couple of shows (he put his foot down after the second one ), but he can't blame himself. The Universe would have directed me to Wilco in some fashion or another anyway.

Glenn is indispensable to Wilco.

 

Best drummer I have ever seen live. He is just so fun to watch and so good at what he does.

Totally agree! I've seen him open for Jeff solo twice and he brings so much energy and creativity into his performance. He's creative with what he uses, too, and an engineer in designing instruments and sounds.

There are lots of Hess/Wilco stations where I live. Like a dork, I always like to buy my gas there, and it's usually the cheapest station around, by a few cents a gallon. Plus, when I gas up, with my Wilco license plates and usually some Wilco playing from the ipod, it gives me a little secret smile that takes some of the sting out of the cost of the fuel.

 

They also have an unusually large assortment of Wilco-branded lighters, in a variety of sizes and designs. I can't help but think that's a nod to the band from someone in their marketing department. I mean, I don't think you see tons of Exxon or Mobil lighters, do you?

If Wilco stations were in the midwest, I'd be a regular customer there too. In my state, Wilco has already been taken for a plate by someone else, lucky fan!

In all the years I've worked where I do, I've only seen the official decaf pot used one time, and I said out loud (with humor), "Who made decaf? Is this some kind of joke?" Turned out we had a visitor at work who requested decaf, which I totally understood. It has not been made before or since, though, to my knowledge anyway.

I've tried going decaf for health reasons twice, but it turns out that caffeine wasn't the problem in either case, so I happily returned to my full-power coffee habit.

When someone has already made coffee

Same here! We like it strong in my office. Some days, though, I swear someone spikes the coffee pot with decaf.

This isn't heard Wilco, and in fact is not our Wilco, but I recently got home from a holiday vacation to Florida and was delighted to see Wilco Travel Plazas here and there in Georgia and Tennessee. I saw a tanker truck too on the road and thought, cool, it's in liquid form too!

Clearly that picture was taken before gas prices spiked a few years ago. Since I didn't manage to take a picture myself, this is the best I could find as evidence that Wilco Travel Plazas do in fact exist.

On the way home we drove through Belleville, IL on I-64 en route to St. Louis. I was tempted to stop into a convenience store or see if there was a vistor center with Belleville postcards to send to kidsmoke and a couple of other Wilco friends, but my kids had been having meltdowns since we were at the tail end of a very long drive that day and I didn't think anyone was in the mood to humor my Wilco obsession at that very moment.

Side note: I heard Nick Lowe at Starbucks in Florida, which my family and I frequented daily since it turned out that the Internet connection wasn't working where we were staying. I listened for Wilco too since I know they pop up in the background music at Starbucks on occasion, but no such luck.

I don't know how I feel about it yet. I can say, though, that I have extremely mixed feelings about FB as a whole.

On the positive, I like keeping in touch with friends that I wouldn't ordinarily find time or a venue to stay in touch with. That alone is worth it. Yet I am also surprised by how many of my friends and family aren't in FB.

However, FB doesn't allow for in-depth conversation (that factor, in contrast, is a plus here in VC). FB feels like soundbites. I don't find it terribly intuitive/user friendly, either. I want it to do things in ways it's not set up to do. I want privacy settings to be simpler to use; I find myself wondering if it is all working properly or whether something will suddenly be changed, or whether I miss a memo about it.

Also, I want all of my friend and family news to be on one wall, then a separate wall within my same account for "liked" pages such as music, entertainment, career-related, health, etc. etc. In fact, I have 2 FB accounts for that reason--one for family & friends and another totally separate one for the rest. It's weird, I know, but that's me. Kind of funny, the 2 accounts invite me to friend myself. The one that is just for "like" pages keeps insisting I add friends, as though I am so pathetic as to have no social life and FB will rescue me from the loneliness it thinks is my life.

But maybe it's all just me. Alert: user error! User cynicism!

We love the Silk Nog at our house, too!

 

Taking an old favorite to my office party this weekend: hot crab dip. It's lump crabmeat, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, a sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning, and maybe a dash of worcestershire and a bit of minced onion. Serve with sliced baguette. It's hot, cheesy, and decadent! (And a nod to my Eastern Shore of Maryland roots.)

That sounds wonderful! My work party was a potluck, which was tasty but a major carb and sugar ticking bomb.

I've heard that Silk brand is the best out there.

I'll second that! Silk also makes a decadent mint chocolate soy milk for the holidays and a pumpkin spice version every autumn. I even like the simple plain vanilla in coffee sometimes.

That looks delicious!

I love to cook from scratch and do so often, a necessity at my house because of my food sensitivities and my husband's diet that keeps an autoimmune disorder under control. However, this time of year is insane due to extra workload at work and the holidays in general. Therefore, Subway and Taco Bell were in our menu this past week! I did manage to make turkey & black bean chili just for myself last night.

No doubt the kids and I will make Christmas cookies this weekend or next week. The kids love frosting cookies nearly as much as they do eating too many of them. I like baking from scratch because I can secretly reduce the amount of sugar and use pure vanilla and real butter rather than margarine or other fabricated substances.

My kids love my homemade spaghetti sauce.

Plus, I'm a major fan of caffeinated beverages these days (couldn't parent without them!), so holiday coffee and tea blends have been a staple every morning and afternoon.

"7 days seems pretty optimistic to me."

You know, I didn't even pay attention to what the weather is/will be. I think I saw some sunshine in the next couple of days?

I too disagree. I saw them last week in Des Moines and thought they were fantastic. Based on threads about shows since then in Minn, etc., VCers had mixed reactions about the energy levels of the band and the crowds, but the show at the Val-Air was high energy and full of life.

At work one day, I overheard my direct supervisor saying goodbye to his girlfriend on the phone and he made a kissing sound into the phone. I'll be honest, it grossed me out. And when I hear that line in Rising Red Lung, that's what it calls up in my mind! But I love Glenn's drumming in the song, the snare fills towards the end. Just no kissy-face over the phone! Maybe it's TOO intimate (certainly for the workplace)!

Maybe a super-quiet kiss is appropriately intimate!

Finally got around to reading Wilco: Learning How to Die. Finished it yesterday --lots of stuff to chew on. I found the most interesting and rewarding thing about the book was how Greg Kot was able to fully convey what music really means to Jeff Tweedy. It fuels the fire for my Wilco-love.

Someday in the future, it would be interesting to have a part 2, called "Born to Die Alone" or something like that, to pick up after YHF until wherever Wilco goes from here.

The trance like poetry of She's a Jar. That song stops me in my tracks.

Well said!

My favorite "Jar" lines:

Are there really ones like these?

The ones I dream

Float like leaves

And freeze to spread skeleton wings

I'm into "Rising Red Lung" lately, especially the instrumental after these lyrics:

As intimate as a kiss

Over a phone

And it goes...

By the way, how intimate is a kiss over the phone, really? I'm trying to figure out if that means there's too much distance between lovers to be truly intimate since they are on the phone, or whether a phone allows for an intimacy even in a crowded place, where potentially only the two on either end of the phone can hear the conversation...or kiss.

The owl's name is Peter. He travels everywhere with them, much like the owl & bear that accompany My Morning Jacket. The funniest comment I ever read on Via Chicago was during one of the sitting vs. standing arguments when someone said that they decide which to do based on Peter's blink-rate. I about fell off my chair laughing.

That's what happens during a 5-year absence from Wilco shows--I've missed out on the owl! I need to not wait so long to go to another.

Since you were there:

Did you notice/hear all the noise from the back of the room during Nick's set, especially "Let Things Slide" & the other quieter numbers? It sounded like an ocean roaring at first but was actually just people being inconsiderate, I assume? We felt badly for him, I don't think that crowd appreciated him nearly as much as they did in KC the night prior.

I noticed that too and thought the same thing. Given that he has a long history in rock music, and his performance was great, I was kind of surprised there wasn't more attention. As uncool2pillow noted, such is the nature of the opening act, though.

I need to get the crop circle show poster...perfect for Iowa and very out there!

This show, my god, was louder & faster & harder than any Wilco show I've been to.

 

Did anyone else think so?

 

Even "Dawned On Me" had some heavier guitar work going on that's not normally part of it.... I think Jeff sensed the type of crowed he had on his hands & wisely went with that vibe.... it was a ROCK rock show.

 

ROCK rock show says it perfectly, REH. Right about the crowd--wasn't "rambunctious" the word Jeff used to describe it? I was up toward front center, being perfectly quiet and attentive, though a few guys to the left of my friends and me, and a group behind us a few rows to the right, were certainly in that rambunctious category. Harmless fun, though. This is the 3rd time I've seen Wilco at the Val-Air, and every time the crowd has had that kind of bold energy, whereas the four other venues I've seen them in have been mellow in comparison. I don't know what it is about that place.

This was my first Wilco show in over 5 years.LOVED it! I agree with what was said above about good spirits. I'm sure I've not seen Jeff smile that much in all of the past shows I've seen combined.

Did everyone notice the macrame owl hanging from Mikael's keyboard? Its eyes blinked. Adorable! I was wondering if a fan or someone's mom or grandma made it.

Nick Lowe was great. Man, that guy is old. Yet he has a wonderful youthful energy about him, timeless and ageless. "Cruel to Be Kind" with the band was a perfect conclusion.

i am worried that my dad will beat up his dad. they've never met, and matt's dad really isn't the best of people... it's probably too personal of a topic to get into on VC.

Ain't family fun sometimes?!

Sarah, I just noticed your signature--really funny!

Here's the book mentioned above.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

That is a great quote!

Congrats, Sarah!

My husband and I were married in a botanical center. About 75 family and friends attended. We had an informal reception and it all was very nice. Both my husband and I are budget-conscious, so we kept costs reasonable.

I read in a really good recent book about the psychology and facts/statistics of relationships--I will try to find the title and share it here, as my "parent brain" forgets things so easily!--that gave a tip on signs of whether a marriage will last. It's surprisingly simple: how the couple talks about how they first met. Even if the marriage is stressful, if the couple has fond recollections of first meeting, the marriage is highly likely to last. Those who are cynical, sarcastic, or dismissive of their stories of how they met are highly likely to divorce. I met my husband in a "meat market" dance club, which is uncharacteristic of us both, but it was fun at the time. I have fond memories of that, a good sign apparently, as we've been married over 20 years. We had kids after 16 years of marriage, which is a whole different crazy-wonderful story, perhaps for a different thread here some other time.