Lodestar

There's a fair bit of buzz about the show already from what I can tell, but I share that sentiment. I'm not one who generally needs or wants to move around a whole lot during a show, but I get distracted if I suspect the band (especially Wilco) is bored or annoyed. I was at that 2004 show as well and remember Jeff's crack about Glenn painting the guy, and I remember hating the idiots in Seattle 2006 who kept shouting about the Seahawks (they were in the Super Bowl that weekend). The crowd at the Royal for Band of Horses was pretty tame, if I remember correctly -- but then again, they'd played

I can't staaaaand Cassadaga. I mean, there are parts of every Bright Eyes album (and song, really) that piss me off, but that whole record grates on me like no other.

I've been planning on writing a little top 50 piece for some friends, but it'll take some time. Here's my current top 30 (disclaimer: I was a teenager for much of the 2000s, and a big part of the criteria is how much I listened to each album, how it affected me, how it still makes me feel now, etc.): 30. Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator) 29. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday 28. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People 27. Feist - The Reminder 26. Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway 25. Whiskeytown - Pneumonia 24. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow 23. Metric - Old World Undergro

Either Da Tandoor or Spice Jammer. Probably not Mahajara on Johnson, unless you're thinking amazing-by-association to Ditch Records next door.

I really enjoyed that, too. Stuck with me a long time after watching it. Has anyone mentioned City of God? It's been a while since I saw it, but there are few films that have moved me emotionally like that one.

"At Least That's What You Said," English to Spanish to French to German to Russian back to English. (Non-English words deleted, likes I particularly like bolded) When I at once have sat down in a bed? Whether you have you?? To cry, whether circulation can? If I proceed, you to me? What? I shall arrive to the house, About, whether can? all means you, just the leaf me only at least is, that you spoke They? Yours it is mad? when you you? At you? Your sad steps I am free, what I have pens? What does it have? Tons? around of you to k? The violet eye purple though I took it you I, s

Me too! I got BB 15/16, right between Jeff and Nels! After much soul-searching, delaying leaving for a month is probably a wise decision for me regardless... and now I get to see Wilco in Victoria!

The last not-so-good book I finished was The Riders by Tim Winton. POV-wise, I thought it was a mess. He did, however, also write one of my all-time favourites, The Turning.

Any word on a Victoria presale? I'm buying tickets anyway, eff it. Edit: WilcoWorld says Wednesday at 10am via FrontGate... Is it generally better to do presale or general onsale?

I'm too dumb to not need heart as well.

It's been over two years since I weened myself off Carver, so I'm allowing myself to re-read Where I'm Calling From for the next little bit. I'm also putting together MFA applications this month, so it's helped get me going.

I tried. I really did. But I can't enjoy a book where the author appears not to care about a single character. As I read and read, I would continually forget what I'd learned only a page or two earlier... as if none of it were significant. Sorry, Cormac.

At this risk of catching all kinds of flak...

I read You Don't Love Me Yet by Lethem earlier this year, a gift from my dad, and it was one of the worst books I've ever finished. I haven't read anything else by him, but it soured me pretty bad.

Aaagh, I can't believe how conflicted I feel. I don't think I can reasonably postpone moving to Barcelona another month and not hate myself, but I've been waiting so freakin long for Wilco to come to Victoria. Then again, I've seen them four times, and what if it was somehow cancelled? It would have to be the most amazing show ever to make that extra month worthwhile... GAH.

Oh my God. I have the biggest fucking pit in my stomach right now. I live in Victoria, have been waiting for this forever, and I've been planning for the past year to move to Barcelona in January. How pathetic would it be if I delayed leaving a month just to see Wilco?

Obviously Johnson is among the NFL's elite wideouts, and in years past could probably have been considered the most valuable in the league, but I think you're right. That offense is something else. Walter and Jacoby Jones are weapons, Owen Daniels is maybe the most underrated tight end in the league, and Slaton's been doing most of his damage out of the backfield this year. Anyway, Johnson was a full participant in today's practice, so he'll likely play. I've got him and Slats on my fantasy team as well.

The news on Johnson has been pretty good all week. It looks like he'll play Sunday.

Very excited to see the direction they're taking with this. Van Occupanther is a great record IMO.

But he abandoned that the second he decided to adapt it for screen, right? The spirit of the book is in the way it encourages kids to use their imaginations, barely even giving written clues. Staying true to that might have entailed a five-minute silent film. Instead, what you've got is Jonze and Eggers' interpretation of the book, with a lot of their own psychological analysis forced in there. And it was that bulk of the movie -- the stuff on the island -- that seemed incomplete and inconsequential to me.

But that's not what I'm arguing. My favourite film of all time is a slow burn from Russia called The Return, which has next to no discernible plot, and which is built almost entirely on psychological turmoil. (Actually, it's a bit similar to the premise of WTWTA: two boys travel with their mysterious father to a remote island and fight with each other.) It's not the "conventional plotting" or "bright highs" I'm missing in WTWTA, but simply the notion of change, or that any of the its events matter. If you're willing, I'd love to see a breakdown of Max's psychological arc. You say it's tangib

"Understanding" isn't really what made me take issue this film; it was the lack of any kind of narrative or character arc. The monsters may work on some psychologically representative level, but that doesn't mean they tell a story. When I asked a friend's 8-year-old daughter what she thought of the movie, she said it bored her and she didn't understand what any of the monsters' problems were.

Ryan Adams - "Writing the Hits With Stupid"

Travis - "Writing to Reach You"

I'm burning through Northline by Willy Vlautin. I loved Motel Life, I love Richmond Fonrtaine, and I'm loving this one too.